Come into my life
by Ts0F
Summary: It was a boy. A skinny boy. His brown, straight, shoulder-length hair was almost covering his whole face, falling in his eyes, as he was leaning over me. His nose was long and slim, his lips small and smiling, emphasizing his large cheekbones and his cleft chin. His look met mine and his eyes opened widely revealing the most beautiful shade of blue I've ever seen. It was stunning
1. Home, Sweet home

Chapter 1-Home, sweet home!

Friday afternoon..

School is just two days away. My dad came to pick me up from my grandma's in Chincoteague Island and that means the end of my happy holiday time. The taxi's waiting outside. I hug my grandma goodbye and walk to the car. Kim and Jeremy, two siblings from Minnesota, who I've spent my whole childhood with, were standing there looking at me with their sad faces. I closed them both in my arms.

"You'll call us soon,okay?" ,Kim said.

"Of course, you silly!", I answered, trying to hide the sadness in my voice.

"We'll miss you,baby girl",said Jeremy, ruffling my hair with his hand.

I punched him on the shoulder."I'll miss you, too.", a smile appeared on our faces. "Come visit us on Christmas!",I shouted, entering the car. They waved, "Bye Tori!".

I was looking out of the back window as the taxi was fending off the old house and my friends, until I couldn't see any of them.

I spent the last two weeks here, in Chincoteague, riding horses, eating tons of ice-cream, and swimming with Kim and Jeremy.

Some mornings, we would wake up with the dimming light of the sun and the light breeze coming from the open window, while some other we had to wake up with Kim cheerfully jumping on our beds. Then, after a rich breakfast – just imagine what kind of breakfast your granny can prepare - we would ride our bikes all the way to the beach to play volleyball. Sometimes random elders would join us, unexpectedly making the game even more fun. After swimming till the evening, we would go back home to have a bite and then again riding our bikes to the Pony Center. Hours later, we would go home and,finally, fall to bed, exhausted. Every day was pretty much like this, and we would only take small breaks to stay with my grandma, who was usually complaining about our all-day absence.

I cannot remember a single summer, since I was a young child, that I spent away from my granny's house. Summer there, has always been one of the best parts of the year, and,even though ,now, being a sixteen-year-old girl means that spending my holiday with my friends sometimes seems more tempting, I still love lying in the garden, under the shade of the trees, drinking delicious, cold, homemade lemonade.

All the windows are wide open and the cool air ruffles my hair. A country song is playing on the radio. For some weird reason it's fun right now, even though I don't like this kind of music, and, in a way, it suits this beautiful scenery around us. I looked out of the window telling the last 'goodbye' to the beautiful landscape. _See you again next year_.

I laughed to my self.

"So, how was the two last weeks of your summer holidays?" ,my dad asks, interrupting my thoughts.

"Fun as always,dad!" I sighed, recalling the time I had there. "Lots of ice-cream! Oh!And lots of hamburgers for Jeremy!He ate nearly ten of them at once!".That reminded me his face after all these food and I laughed. "After that, he could either wait for his stomach to explode or puke. So he decided to puke." Both, my father and I laughed at this thought.

"Well,no wonder why!Woody has always been making the most delicious burgers in the whole states!",he said proudly. I smiled.

"How's mum and Christina?", I asked after a short pause.

"Both are very well. Still haven't finished with all these ice-cream I bought them..." he giggled and rolled his eyes. "So, now you miss your sister,huh?" he teased me.

"You know I love her!" I answered in a mock irritated tone and added through my teeth "even though sometimes I wouldn't mind if she'd just disappeared.." ,I said innocently

We were at the airport now.

For once again lost in my thoughts I didn't even notice how we got into the plane and took our seats. Suddenly,something started irritating me. I had imagined taking this plane to Bentonville alone.

"Don't you trust me?I'm not a kid anymore!" ,I pouted. My dad seemed surprise with the sudden angry tone in my voice. "What happened?".

"I told you I wanted to fly alone this year. I'm old enough to travel alone!", I complained.

"Of course you are!", he giggled."I just wanted a couple of days off. That's all."

"Yeah,sure!" ,I answered, looking out of the window angrily.

Around two hours later, our plane landed. I was finally back in Bentoville. My family, my mum and dad actually, moved here some months before I was born. They wanted me to have a quiet life away from too crowded cities like LA. I used to appreciate this quiet life here until two or so years ago. Bentonville seems just too quiet now.

We got into a taxi. When we arrived at home I ran and gave a big hug to my mom and my sister.

"Look at you!How tanned are you!And you got taller too!", said my mum excitedly and gave me another tight hug. I rolled my eyes.

"Wow!", screamed my sister,coming towards me. "Look at that ring!", she cried grabbing my thumb."Did you get me anything or..?".I took a small box out of my pocket. She quickly took it from my hand and totally tore up the glittery blue packing paper. She took the handmade bracelet out and made a shrieking noise running up to me to hug me. I laughed.

We were now chilling in the backyard, waffling about our separate summer holidays. Just a sweet family moment. Just until mum noticed that dad hadn't bought milk on our way home. My eyes widened as I watched them quarreling about such an unimportant thing. I looked at my sister and she was trying to stifle her laughter. I laughed. "Home, sweet home!".


	2. First Day

Monday morning.

My alarm goes off.

Annoyed and still half-asleep, I turned to the other side and put my pillow on my head.

It doesn't stop.

I opened one eye to see what time is it.

_7:00 am_. _Why does my alarm go off at this time in the morning?It's summer and-oh wait!_

I looked at the date.

_09/01_.

I jumped out of the bed in panic. Why must we start earlier this year?

I rapidly opened my closet to find something to wear, throwing clothes all over the place. It was my first day in high school and I wanted everything to be perfect to make a good impression but none of my clothes seemed suitable. I sat on my bed trying to calm myself down. I finally gave up and I walked down the stairs, wearing a black t-shirt, my blue jeans and my black converse. I had breakfast and a little chat with my mom about 'my first day in high school' which made me even more nervous.

Mia came earlier that morning and we started walking together. It was shiny and warm outside, although it was just around 8 o'clock in the morning. We chatted for a little until we arrived at school and met our friends.

"Geez, Tori!It's the first day of school and you're dressed in black again" ,Beth teased.

"Black is always in fashion, you know!",I said pretending to be insulted.

Joel, Tyler, Peggy and Aaron came up to greet us.

We all started telling stories from our summer holidays. Of course, whenever someone said something 'spicy' everyone went 'awww' and intended for 'more details'.

I felt everyone's eyes on us. We were the new students and, I'm sure, the top gossip topic today.

With the sound of the bell everyone headed to their classes.

I looked at my schedule. First class, Chemistry. I really like Chemistry, nearly as much as I like Physics. My uncle, who happens to be a Physics teacher, could never understand how this can happen since I hate Maths and those two subjects are completely related to Maths. But Chemistry!Eventually,this is one of the classes I will enjoy.

"Good morning",the gray-haired man said. "First,I'd like to welcome you to Bentonville High School. I really hope you like it because this will be your school for the next 3 years...",he added,in a failed attempt to joke. And he proceeded to the most horrible part, that I was hoping to shun. "Apparently, I'll be your Chemistry teacher this year, so, let's introduce ourselves! I'm George Jones". He made each one of us in the room to stand up and introduce ourselves in front of the whole class. As I could see no one felt conveniently doing this, neither did I.

The bell rang. I took my bag and got out of the classroom. I was looking at my schedule to find my next class when I heard a voice "What's your next class?". I lifted my eyes and I saw Joel. I pointed on a spot on the paper. "Biology."

"Great!", said Joel happily.

"How come you're in such a good mood?", I asked.

"I was hoping to have a class with one of you guys. It'll be more fun now!"

"You mean it would be more fun if I was Peggy, huh?".I teased. He looked confused. "Come ooon! Wouldn't a class with her be awesome?" I asked slyly. Joel had confessed that he liked Peggy and Peggy always showed an interest in him but none of them ever made a move to get together. I have been trying to persuade Joel to ask her out but of course he wouldn't.

His eyes swelled. "Shhhh!", he hissed, looking around in panic. "Can't you just be quiet!"

I was socked by his reaction. "What happened now..?".

"I don't want her to know...Can you just forget it?It's not true now, anyways", he said, more calm this time. I decided to say nothing since this conversation was already over.

We sat next to each other in the back seats and we couldn't resist commenting on everything our Biology teacher ,Mrs Birney, said, accepting some furious looks.

I met my friends in the cafeteria for lunch. I took a slice of pizza and an apple and headed to our table, obviously in the area of the freshmen. I noticed some older students looking at me as I was walking through;the look on their faces was... a bit offensive like the don't-look-at-me look or something. When I sat down at our table between Mia and Joel, they all calmed down and continued with their lunch.

"Wow. They don't like freshmen here,huh?",I said looking suspiciously at them.

"It seems it's a common greeting to the newcomers here. I guess that, for as long as we don't mess around with them, we will be fine",Joel chuckled. Our nervous giggles followed like an echo to his.

We have just started eating when three boys, three seniors I could guess, stood up from their table and came up to ours. One of them, the strapping one, who seemed to be the 'boss', leaned in and whacked his hand on the table.

"Well, well. Fresh meat!",he laughed. _What the hell?We're not in army!_ I bit my lip so not to say this out loud. All of us were looking at him frozen. "You are new here so you'd better know who's the boss." _Like we haven't noticed_. "We make the rules here and we don't want riots so you'd better be quiet. Understood?",he threatened. We nodded and he seemed to be pleased. He walked away, heading to another bunch of freshmen.

"What was that!",Peggy whispered,her eyes swelled.

"A warning..?",I answered with the same look on my face."They seriously _do _have a problem with the newcomers ". _And I do have a problem with them..._

"What Joel said, just ignore them.",Tyler murmured, still looking at them angrily.

The next two hours were long.

You could say from the freshmen's faces that the incident with the seniors in the cafeteria had upset the whole school. The good thing about that was that as long as everyone did what those guys said, it would be quiet and peaceful, which could only help us on our first days here. Even though bullies really irritate me...


	3. Missed the Audition

Wednesday morning.

6:18 am

I open my eyes. The room is still quite dark, and I have plenty of time to go back to sleep but I can't. I've been now lying here awake for over two hours since I've been sleeping all the afternoon yesterday. I stood up and stretched a little. I brushed my teeth thoroughly and then got dressed as slowly as I could.

6:57 am. Still.

With a glimpse out of my window I saw that the car wasn't at the driveway, so my parents must have gone to work. I ran downstairs and quickly headed to the kitchen to find out that breakfast... wasn't ready. I sighed hearing my stomach growling and I quickly prepared some omelets for me and my sister.

"Good morning.", I said as she emerged from the living room.

" 'Morning".

"You stay up late,huh? " I teased her as I left her plate in front of her and sat down. She just nodded. We grew silent. I quickly gobbled up my breakfast and washed the dishes.

It was still quite early so I decided to go pick up Mia. I slightly knocked on the door. A raucous voice tried to say something that ended up in a hysterical cough. Then a sneeze. Finally, Mia opened the door, holding a bouquet of tissues in in front of her nose. She seemed surprised.

"Why so-" sneezing ,"early?", she managed to say.

"What the hell happened to you?", I yelled in astonishment.

"I'm fine.." she murmured, "I just caught a cold. We were walking in the rain yesterday...", she explained, sniffling.

"You'd better stay home.", I advised her, turning around ready to leave.

"I said I'm fine.",she repeated, angrily.

First class, English. As always, it became boring after the first five minutes and I eagerly rushed out of the class when the bell rang. I met Mia on the way to my Physics class. We stopped out of the classroom as Mia was struggling to comment on Mrs Franklin's dressing, through coughing and sneezing. As she was talking, I scanned the notices on the board next to the door. Mia followed my gaze. She checked the random papers on the board when she suddenly jumped in front of me staring at one of them. I spotted the yellowish paper she was looking at, and I tried to read the headline, looking over her shoulder, curious to know what had upset her so much. _'Volleyball Team Audition'._

Mia turned around and looked in my eyes. There was a huge smile spread all over her face. I raised an eyebrow waiting for her to say something.

"There's an audition for the Volleyball team", she said in a high pitched voice.

"Yeah..I just read it..?", I responded quite worried.

"I **have**to be in the team!", she cried, looking to the board and then back to me.

"But...", I started saying, not sure if it was a good idea, "you're sick and you may get worse if you-", she answered before I could finish. "I'm fine! Besides, the audition is on Friday. I'll be fine until then.", she smiled. I smiled back, hoping she was right.

The following hours seemed to go by slower than usual, and so did the following days.

Mia got worse as I was afraid she would. Her mother didn't let her come to school and as a result she missed the audition. She called me that afternoon, crying.

"Do you know who got in the team?", she said sniffing her nose. I imagined her wiping the tears of her eyes.

"I haven't heard anything about the team...I'm sorry,Mia...", I murmured, feeling sorry for her.

I spent the weekend at home. I would mostly draw and listen to some music and play cards with Christine and help mum with cooking. On Sunday afternoon, Mia called me to tell that she was feeling better and would come to school the next day.

She half-dragged me to the Principal's Office. She was looking for Mr Davis, the coach, to ask him if she could test her to be in the team. I know Mia very good and I know she wouldn't give up, unless the coach told her to stop trying and completely disappointed her.

She banged on the door and rushed in as she heard Mr Pearson's bass voice. "Come in." She explained what she wanted but in her disappointment Mr Davis was away. His wife just had a baby.

"You can talk to him tomorrow. He will probably be here.", the principal said as we were walking out of his office.

"Yes ma'am...", replied Mia with the disappointment in her voice being too obvious that I couldn't ignore it.

"Don't worry", I poked her,"He will be here tomorrow and will definitely accept you in the team!", I reassured her, smiling. She made an effort smile back.

Next morning she spotted Mr Davis while she was walking to her locker and immediately ran toward him. I went to the cafeteria for lunch with my friends. Mia wasn't there so Tyler explained me what have happened. We saw her skipping to out table. Everyone tried to figure out from her expression what had happened. She smile at us reassuringly.

"He agreed to make another mini audition so I can be in the team. One of the members was hurt and she can't play. He's hoping for a new good player now", she grinned. Everyone encouraged her with compliments. But she seemed to be hesitating. "Can any of you guys, stay a little later after school and wait for me today? I'm nervous...", she looked up at us, grinning. No one said anything and she turned to me.

"Oh no, no the eyes", I cried as she looked at me with that freaking puppy look, willing to win me over.

"Aww.. please!I'm begging you! I need someone to encourage me!And your my best friend!You can't leave me like that!", she moaned.

"Okay, okay!", I said, giving up,"I'll come with you. Just stop looking at me like that...", I pouted, covering my eyes with my hands. _Dang it, Mia. She managed to do it. Again._


	4. Blue Eyes

The bell rang loudly and everyone eagerly ran out of the classroom. Probably, I'm not the only one who can't stand Mr Jones. He's just...forget it. I took my bag and slowly walked out, enjoying the moment of freedom. Who knew something so simple could give you so much satisfaction? I stretched my arms above my head as I started walking to leave the building.

I saw Mia waiting for me in the parking area as I turned to the corner, her foot irritatingly tapping on the ground. Yes, she was nervous, and Mia gets very angry when she's nervous.

"Where have you been?" she shouted as she marched towards me. My feet unwillingly made some steps backwards to the frustrated voice. God, she is scary sometimes.

"I..The bell just rang.." I made an unsuccessful attempt to apologize moving my hands around, trying to think of something to make her calm down.

"Come on!" she yelled before I could say anything else, grabbing my hand and violently dragging me to the gym.

"Hello!" Mr Davis loudly greeted us when he saw us walking in through the big double door. "How are you?" a big smile on his face to show his teeth.

"Fine..." I whispered. Probably, the question wasn't for me but it was just an instinctive reaction. I hid my face with my free hand.

Mia let my hand fall and walked up to him. I sat on the bleachers and watched her running and jumping around the place while the coach was yelling commands at her. He managed to keep a pretty straight face, pretending that Mia wasn't doing well but the little satisfied nods betrayed him.

I just stood there watching. I could as well have dozen off but then, suddenly, a bunch girls came in wearing shorts and matching small tops, the gym flooded with giggles and clatter. They sat on the seats opposite of me. All of them had very well-shaped bodies, strong muscles emerging and disappearing when they were moving. Probably, seniors, most of them. I cowered, feeling quite uncomfortable with my thin, flabby shape.

Mia stopped with a sign of the coach. Drops of sweat were flowing down her forehead and neck, her cheeks red. He asked her something that I couldn't figure out of the other voices in the room. She frowned and quickly nodded, trying to catch her breath. Then she grew silent listening carefully to what Mr Davis had to say, him pointing to different directions. A moment later she was squealing and jumping up and down around herself. The man laughed at her enthusiastic reaction and patted her back. Mia came up to me running the smirk on her face only growing. I stood up and held my arms open to hug her.

"I'm in the team!" she squalled, falling on me.

"Congratulations,girl!" I smiled, jumping up and down along with her. It was really hard not to feel happy yourself when you saw Mia like that. It was truly impossible.

"Hey. I'm staying for training... Will you wait for me? Pleaaase? I'm so nervous...", she finally asked, looking over her shoulder at her new team. Yes, I could related to that.

"OK", I answered with a sigh "why not?" I really didn't have anything better to do anyway. If it wasn't Mia I would probably go home, do homework and get bored to death. Staying a little longer didn't seem bad at all at that moment.

She thanked me before running back to the court.

I sat back and waited. After almost half an hour, I was growing so bored, sleepiness hitting me within seconds, a slight headache befogging me. I needed some fresh air. Quick.

'I'll be outside.' I mouthed at Mia when she looked over her shoulder at me, from her position in the volleyball court. She nodded. I quickly marched out of the big door, the door making a low click when it closed. I looked around to spot any bench to sit.

"Ahh...". The neatest bench was just too far for me. I shrugged. I walked to the corner and sat on the pavement. I couldn't care less at that moment. The cement was hot. I took my precious sketchbook out of my bag and searched inside until I found my pen. I put my headphones on and loud, soothing music started blasting in my ears.

Lost in my thoughts I wasn't aware of how long I've been there when I noticed a shadow, blocking the sunlight, that wasn't there before. Someone was standing in front of me, creating a shadow on my sketch. I started blushing furiously. Being watched while drawing wasn't my best,apparently. Actually, I find it quite embarrassing.

I endeavored to find something to think of so the red on my face would disappear I slowly looked up at the source of the shadow. It was a boy. A skinny boy. His brown, straight, shoulder-length hair was almost covering his whole face, falling in his eyes, as he was leaning over me. His nose was long and slim, his lips small and smiling, emphasizing his large cheekbones and his cleft chin. Nothing really special. His eyes were half-closed from the dazzling sunlight as he preyed the alien body on the paper in my hands. I tilted my head to take a better look of his face, my eyes focused on his eyes. His look met mine and his eyes opened widely, to prove me wrong, revealing the most beautiful shade of blue I've ever seen. It was stunning.

I used both my hands to take my headphones off, the sketchbook slipping from my lap and falling on the ground. He smiled.

"Nice drawing.",he commented in an excellent British accent as he picked it up and brought it closer to his face to take a better look at it. He handed it to me. His deep voice was so charming. I realized I was still staring at him, my mouth fallen agape,still blushing. I blinked and smiled widely. I just spontaneously said "Thank you...". I couldn't look away, though. His eyes had really captivated me.

A voice was heard coming from a distance and he immediately looked back over his shoulder breaking eye contact. I followed his gaze. There, behind a couple of parked cars, two boys were standing, but I couldn't pay any attention to them right now. I turned my head to look back at the boy with the blue eyes. He nodded to them and looked at me again.

"Gotta go. Bye!" he said as he hurried back to his friends, the guys who were standing there waiting – a blonde and a bigger brunette. My eyes followed him walking away till he was out of my sight. Now that I was finally free from his gorgeous look I could take a better look of him. God. He was even skinnier than I'd realized.

"Who are they?" an amused voice whispered in my ear. I turned around to see Mia, squatting down next to me. I blinked again to clean my head and nervously chucked. Wow.

"I don't know...", I answered, still staring at the direction the three boys had disappeared. Her hand moved up and down in front of my face to distract me.

"Wake uuup!" she demanded, chuckling. My eyes flew back at her in confusion. Her own, wide open, laughing at me and my silly behaviour. "Do you know them?"

"Erm...No – I mean – No, I've never seen them before?" I shrugged trying to make it seem like it wasn't a big deal for me. She raised one eyebrow and slyly smirked.

"Never?"

"Never." She stared at me for a long moment and then abruptly stood up.

"Let's go home." she smiled. "But we're not done yet." she grabbed my arm and pulled me up.


	5. New friend

Wednesday morning.

I lazily started walking to my Maths class, dragging my feet,Beth on my side. We headed to the big, double glass door on the front of the school building. Beth stretched out her hand to open the door the moment when four girls came out rampaging.

I've been to this school for only a little more than a week but I could recognize those girls; Susan Taylor, the editor of the school's newspaper gossip column, and her following, Denice Rucker, Niki Mayfield and Carol Watley. Susan always tries to find juicy news including anything embarrassing any student does; humiliate people,destroy their lives, become famous. So,yeah. Definitely, some of the people to avoid. We had been lucky not to be included in her articles yet,considering how prone to gossip we had been lately.

The short redhead, Carol, pushed me away as she passed by, sending a sudden shock up to my still sleeping body, abruptly waking me up.

"Hey! What the hell happened!?" I shouted, obviously annoyed. They stopped for a moment and looked at my furious expression. I blushed but didn't look away from them, anger outweighing embarrassment I had surely made this even more interesting for them just by asking, whatever was it that had upset them that much. Susan hurried to me.

"Haven't you really heard the news?"she curiously asked, raising an eyebrow and crossing her arms in front of her chest. Beth and I looked at each other and shook our heads in denial. What news? Taylor looked back at her friends and laughed jokingly, making me feel stupid for not understanding. She leaned in and whispered "I heard Mr. Pearson talking on the phone about some new students from Europe!" she squeaked in great excitement. The figure of the slim boy I met yesterday popped up in my mind. _Can he be?_ I looked at her in astonishment but, luckily, her look didn't meet mine."Though...I'm not very sure 'cause I don't know that much about them and I can't publish an article unless I know more..." she added. "You, girls, haven't heard anything, have you?".

I endeavored to hide my nervousness, lowering my eyes. She searched in our eyes for any indication of lying. Both, me and Beth nodded again. "Very well, then. If you hear anything let me know!". She shook her hair and turned around to leave, the other girls trying to keep up with her, following her like little puppies.

I turned around too and silently started walking to my class. _Why don't I skip this class, anyway?_ I whined internally. There was too much noise in my head. The boy with the stunning blue eyes could leave my head. He was the noise, I guess. His eyes were the only thing I could see at that moment. I wanted to see that blue again. I was secretly hoping he was one of the new students, that I would get the chance to meet him again. And what if I couldn't? Or what if he wasn't the new student? Knowing myself quite well, I'd be disappointed to the point of crying. Not literally but it would be a total let down for sure.

"Hey, what are you thinking?" a voice sounded over the sounds in my head. I turned my head and met Beth. I had almost forgot about her. I shook my head half as an answer to her question and half to clear my mind of all that hard thinking. "You sure? You look...weird."

"Yes. Yes, I'm fine." I gave her a little smile for good measure. I wasn't in the mood to explaining right now;not even to Beth. Despite of the fact that I was upset a second ago, I felt sleepiness hitting me, my eyes feeling hazy. I yawned.

"Tori Seevers. Can you solve this equation, please?" Mrs. Rosado asked in her weird accent. We were doing a restatement of last year's algebra but that day wasn't my day. My eyes swelled in fear. Why me? I nodded and stood up and looked at the numbers on the white board, hardly trying to focus. _Quadric equation. That must be easy._ I tried to calm myself down. After a good couple of minutes I managed to solve it. "Very well, Seevers. You can sit now." she said inexpressibly. I sat down again, hiding my face in my book, and let all the thoughts flood my mind again, for the rest of the hour.

Getting out of the classroom, I braced myself for the next lesson. Mr Jones' lesson. _Yay_. I dragged my feet while walking there and was surprised to see that most seats were empty and Mr Jones wasn't there yet. I sat on the last row; it was the row of privacy, people would kill to sit there. I was lucky. I smiled proudly while left my back leaning on the desk next to my seat. Unfortunately, my smiley expression fell when Mr Jones walked in and immediately started lecturing, as he always did. Since I knew he wouldn't stop talking for any reason I let my mind wander, not being in the mood for Chemistry.

In my astonishment, though,Mr Jones soon paused. I looked up. Three fast knocks on the door were heard.

"Come in." the teacher called on without moving. The door opened a crack and a masculine voice, Mr Pearson's, was heard.

"I'm sorry for interrupting you, George.". The man quickly marched to the door. Everyone in the room started talking with each other and laughing, while a couple girls were guessing what Mr Person wanted.

"It must be about Mrs Birney!" whispered the blonde, loud enough to be heard by the people sitting near their desks, and winked at the other girl. They both burst out in hysterical giggles. I rolled my eyes.

Mr Jones walked back to his desk, grinning, everyone shut up. It was a quite different grin than his usual one after saying his old-man stupid jokes; more of a proud one.

"Come on in, boy. Don't be embarrassed!" he loudly laughed, gesturing towards the open door.

The said boy entered the room, the door clicking shut behind him.

It took me a second to understand but when I did I gasped. The boy now standing next to the old man with his arms crossed over his chest was actually the boy who I met a week ago at the school parking lot. The boy I've been thinking of the last two hours. He was looking at his feet, cheeks a soft pink. Mr Jones grabbed both his shoulders and shook him a little, standing tall next to him.

"Students, as you can see, we have a new friend in class!" he turned to the boy almost whispering and impelled him forward, the boy awkwardly standing in front of the whole class.

"Why..?" the boy's whine faintly sounded. He looked back at the teacher with pleading eyes, the teacher mouthing angrily '_Hello class, I'm...' _moving his hands in circular moves, failing to encourage him.

The mysterious boy rolled his beautiful eyes and looked up at us "Hello, class. I'm Matthew Bellamy." he said in a mocking tone, moving his head side to side and smirked at the teacher when he finished his introduction. The whole room was filled laugh for a moment. He blushed and chuckled along, nervously.

"Yes, he's Matthew _James_ Bellamy, kids." he exclaimed,emphasizing his middle name; _James_. "And where are you from, Mr Bellamy?" he asked. Matthew reluctantly turned to us, again.

"I'm from England." he sighed and smirked. Mr Jones' face was becoming redder and redder with anger with every sentence the boy said.

"And from where exactly?" he said, his voice filled with indignation.

"Devon." Matthew simply replied and nodded.

"He came with an exchange program" Mr Jones nodded as well. He seemed to be pleased with his managing to take as more information as was important out of the boy. Maybe humiliate him as well. "Alright. You can sit wherever you want, now, Mr Bellamy." he made a floating movement with one hand towards us. Matthew nodded and looked around the room for a moment. Everyone's eyes on him. He walked down one of the corridors between the desks. He came and sat to the one desk next to mine without hesitating. I turned to look at him in disbelief, but he was looking straight forward, stone-faced.

"Mr Bellamy? It would be better for you if you sat in the front row, since you're new."

"No, thank you sir. Front rows make me dizzy." he smirked and reassuringly nodded. Mr Jones stared at him for a bit, probably trying to understand, or maybe trying to restrain himself from shouting at the new student, before getting back to his speech. I stifled a laughter, bringing my hand to my mouth.

"Hello." Matthew whispered. I turned my head to see him. He was looking straight forward again. Did he say 'hi' or was it just me?

"Hi" I greeted him, afraid of humiliating myself. Luckily, he smiled and leaned in to hide behind the taller guy in front of him while he talked.

"Sorry, for not introducing myself last time. I was in a hurry." he extended his hand over the desk for me to shake. A light blush returned to his pale face, my face reddening as well. "I'm Matthew." I shook his hand and found myself unable to stop smiling.

"It's okay. I didn't introduce myself either." I shrugged. "I..I'm Tori, by the way." I mumbled looking in his eyes. They were prettier than I could remember. A soft giggle escaped his small lips.

"Nice to meet you, Tori." he smiled. I didn't think it was possible to blush even more but I did, my skin was burning. I looked away for a moment, trying to think of something I could say to keep our conversation going. I glimpsed at him and he wasn't looking at me again. Then I noticed...

"Your hair...It was longer the last time... wasn't it?" I felt proud I managed to say a sentence without mumbling.

"Well, yes. I thought it was time I had an image change, you know?" he softly giggled and pulled a strand of his dark hair down in front of his eyes. He made a grimace while trying to pry it. I giggled quietly.

"I like it" I murmured and made an attempt to hide my face by looking at the nonsense the old man was writing on the white board. I felt Matthew's eyes on me but couldn't dare look at him. He smiled.

"You draw, eh?". My eyes shot at him immediately. How – oh.

"Err...yeah. Sometimes." I felt red crawling up my face yet again. Great.

"You're quite good." I chuckled nervously.

"Thanks."

"Do you have any of your... sketches here?"

After class, we headed to the cafeteria together. Still talking.

"That chemistry teacher, err...Mr Jones is very-" he paused "sleeky." he pursed his lips and slightly snorted.

"That was your first class here, right?"

"Yup" I giggled.

"You're just very unlucky for getting to know your new school like that."

He laughed at my comment."Yeah, well. It wasn't that bad..." he smiled and I smiled back.

Then we started growing silent. I decided to break the silence, first. "So, you're from England, you said. London?".

"Yes. No. I mean yes, from England, not from London. I'm from Teignmouth. But I used to live in London before, so I guess you could say I'm from London." he looked down at my confused expression. "North east England"

"Oh."

We entered the cafeteria.

"When did you arrive?" I asked. He seemed to be abstracted, looking around the room like he was lost. I waited for him to answer.

"Last...Sunday." His eyes stopped somewhere across the room. I followed his look to see his two friends waving at him. Matt nodded and then turned to me "I'm going to sit with those dudes now..." he seemed to be hesitating "Do you want to join us..?" he asked kindly, but seemed unsure. To be honest, I didn't want to stop chatting with him. He seemed like a truly nice guy and I was dying to know more about him. But I couldn't accept sitting with him. And his friends. It didn't seem right. And I had my own friends waiting me for lunch, anyway. I sighed.

"No,no. I'm going to find my friends too. Maybe you – and your friends – want to join us?" I tried to smile. He looked back over his shoulder.

"Maybe some other time" he smiled gently and walked away. He looked back at me, now sat down to his table, reminding me I should move.


	6. Rain

Thursday morning.

I opened my eyes having a weird feeling. Something that I haven't felt since primary school, when I was so looking forward to meet my friends and go to school and have fan with my crayons. Today I was more eager to go to school than ever.

I stayed lying, feeling utterly weird, and searched in my mind to find the reason of all the excitement. Failing, I stood up after five minutes and started getting ready, mainly trying to persuade myself to slow down.

I was walking down the corridor, mostly wandering around since I had just enough time to do it. Lost in my thoughts. Someone fell on me and woke me up. Dizzy and lost for a split second I turned around to see who was that poor person I've just hit.

"Sorry" I said to whoever was there. I faced Matthew, Matthew Bellamy.

"Sorry!" he yelled in his strong British accent, running backwards. He lifted his hand to greet. I waved, feeling a huge smile crawling over my face. His two friends screamed 'Hi' while passing by me, chasing after Matt. Three little boys playing.

"Come here, you twat!" the taller one shouted and Matthew stack his tongue out before running faster to escape them, his small body helping him leave the two other boys behind. I couldn't resist a laugh. My big smile collapsed the moment I heard Susan's haughty voice. Of course this gesture of his couldn't have gone unnoticed by her.

"So, you know him." that definitely was not a question. I slowly turned to look at her pretending to be surprised instead of nervous or whatever. Knowing I wasn't good enough at lying I just gave a evasive reply.

"Well, not exactly...Depends on how you define 'know'" She now had that really irritating expression on her beautiful features that was always like talking to me. The punch-me-now-because-I-am-a-bitch expression.

"So you're saying that the British dude didn't waved at you, correct?"I tried to keep my expression as calm as I could.

"Incorrect."

"Somebody saw you two talking yesterday at the cafeteria...", she pointed her index finger at me.

"Yes. So?"

"Why?"

"Because we both had Chemistry and then headed to the cafeteria together." Why was I even telling her that?

"Did you have a nice conversation?"

"You know you're not allowed to be talking in class, right?" I said in an attempt to get rid of her investigation.

"Are you trying to cover him or something?" It wasn't about covering him. Why would I have to cover him in the first place?

"No..why would I? Is he a criminal or something?"

"I don't know..."she was now skeptical but her expression changed again, within a second, to another that I couldn't interpret. "You know that I'm your friend, sweety. And now I need help. So anything you might know about those three could be very useful, you know that,don't you? You know you can tell me anything." she smirked and proudly walked away before I could answer. Hopefully. I'm not that fond of conspiracies and stuff but..is she a spy or what? Now I had to worry that she would follow _me_ around just to find out what's going on.

And what was going on anyway? I've talked to Matthew only one time, not counting that day on the parking lot. How was I supposed to know the information Susan needed? And if she really needed information, why didn't she order one of her girls to go poke around? Why would she ask me?

I'd heard about Susan's articles a lot of times. I'd heard about what her articles did to people. I didn't like her articles, or actually, what Susan had in her mind every month. I would never agree to help her humiliate people like this. I wasn't one of the girls who needed her attention so badly so I could never help her with this.

That day, Mrs Harris intended us to stay for five more minutes to talk about history stuff that nobody seemed to care about. As a result I found all of my friends waiting for me with empty plates in the cafeteria. I took a disk from the pile and headed to the queue of students waiting for their food. I decided to have salad since I wasn't too hungry. Yes. Salad would be nice.

I suddenly felt a poke on my left shoulder. I rapidly turned my head to see Matthew stupidly grinning down at me. His two friends standing behind. I giggled. I glimpsed at his disk. A huge slice of fat quality pizza, chocolate pudding and two bananas. I could never eat that much.

"You must be really hungry" I commented walking forward. He chuckled following me.

"He always eats like this" the blonde guy replied and looked at the dark haired boy next to him.

"Really?" I squinted at Matthew's skinny figure. The blonde let out a dramatic sigh.

"I know..." he looked up at Matthew and giggled. "By the way, I'm Dominic. Dominic Howard." he said and gave me his hand to shake it. The boy behind him, with the long brown curly hair made a step forward and copied the gesture.

"Chris. Nice to meet you." he smiled shyly and backed away. I smiled back at them.

"I'm Tori. Nice to meet you too."

"Yes, we know..." Dominic said looking at Matthew slyly while Chris was trying to stifle his laughter. Matthew punched Dominic's arm.

"Wh- " I started saying but stopped. I blushed for an unknown reason and reflexively looked down at my salad. An awkward silence was starting to fill the atmosphere between us.

"Um..You guys..Er...Do-Do you want to sit with us?" I pointed back at our table. The boys shrugged in great unison as they looked at each other. I smiled and walked to my table first.

"At last!" Mia exclaimed. I laughed. "Sorry guys. Mrs Harris wanted to tell us...stuff" I rolled my eyes and sat down. Everyone giggled knowing how boring her class was but I noticed their eyes were on the boys behind me. "Oh!" I shot up from my chair "These are Matthew, Dominic and Chris" I said introducing them.

"Matt" the dark-haired boy corrected "Hello there" he said in his deep voice.

"Matt." I corrected myself, smiling at him. "And those are Mia, Beth, Tyler, Joel, Aaron and Peggy." I added, now pointing at the people sitting.

"Nice to meet you" almost whispered the boys. I sat down next to Mia. Matt sat down next to me. He curiously looked at my disk.

"Are you a veggie?" he laughed.

"A veggie?" my eyebrows shot up and I laughed too.

"Yeah. I mean, a vegetarian or whatever..."

"No. Yes... I don't know." He giggled. "Well, I don't usually eat meat so...maybe?" I smirked. A prolonged laugh followed. "And I guess you're not?" I said glancing at his disk now. He shook his head negatively. I watched him peeling his banana and gobbled it up like he had been starving for days. He quickly peeled the second one and devoured it as well within some seconds.

He noticed me looking at him and made an unsuccessful attempt to smile with his mouth full. I couldn't resist a giggle and his hysterical laughter followed, that made him sound like he was choking.

"Banana lover" he reasoned when he finally managed to breathe, showing me the bright yellow banana peel. I laughed.

"Me too!" and he nodded proudly. High-five.

Finishing my last class of the day, I was disappointed to find out that it was heavily raining outside. _Great!_ I hanged my bag on my right shoulder and searched in it for something to keep me dry. I took out my blue timeworn umbrella. This should do. _Unless it's windy... _I walked out but hesitated at the doorway. The wind was blowing like crazy. Now I was sure I wasn't gonna stay dry. But I could take the bus instead of walking. I opened my umbrella while running to the school exit across the yard where the school bus is supposed to be waiting.

The bus was leaving when I stepped outside. I started running towards it to catch it. I really don't know why. The driver couldn't see me anyway through the waterfalls on the windows. I took my phone out and called my dad finally, after a lot failed attempts to type the number with my wet fingers. I looked down at my umbrella. No, it wasn't an umbrella anymore. It looked more like a dump plastic cloth with a metallic skeleton hanging or something. I placed what was left of it above my head. It wouldn't help but it was better than nothing. I'm sure I looked ridiculous.

My dad arrived fifteen minutes later than I expected. I got inside the car, wetting my seat as I sat.

"God, how long have you been standing in the rain?" my dad made a question that sounded more like scolding. "Could you go under the shed?" he asked as he started the car. I looked back at it. It was just some meters away from where I was standing. I felt even more stupid now. Anyway, this couldn't help a lot either. The wind caused the direction of the rain to change with every blow. I felt sorry for anyone who was outside right now.

As we were heading to the corner, I saw three dark figures walking in the rain.

_God, help you not to drown._ I thought. Whichever God they believed in. As we were getting closer my dad slowed down as not to wet them while passing through the huge puddle next to the pavement. I could see them better now.

The one holding the black umbrella wasn't wet, except for his legs, and the other two, who were struggling to get under it, well, they could definitely be drier. The one holding the umbrella dipped his foot in a puddle and splashed water all over the blonde's pants. I quietly laughed. Poor guy.

Wait. Matt? Matt was the one holding the umbrella. Dominic and Chris were soggy. I hesitated for some seconds and then reacted stupidly and spontaneously; as always.

"Stop!" I screamed and the brakes screeched to their struggle to stop the car in time. My dad looked at me with a glare that threw me back at my seat. I glimpsed at the figures outside which had turned to look at the car. "I...I know those guys...Can they come in...the car?" I mumbled, being careful not to vex him more, because I surely had already. Dad looked down and sighed trying to calm himself down. He whispered something like 'I don't know what's wrong with you sometimes' and then said out loud: "Tell them to get in.". I nodded. I opened the door and stuck my head out, fearless of the rain now that I was already soaked to the bone.

"Come on in!" I shouted to be heard above the loud sound of the rain. The three boys looked at me without moving for a moment that seemed like hours. Matt licked the raindrops that had made it down to his mouth with his tongue. They looked at each other, communicating with their eyes. Beautiful eyes, by the way.

"We're not far. We can walk. But thank you." Chris said finally. Now I had got out whole after imagining my dad screaming about the wet seats by the rain slipping through the half-closed door. I looked toward the descent behind them. You could easily confuse it with a new Bentonville waterfall.

"Are you suicidal?" I immediately shut my mouth with my hands, realizing that what I said could be rude to three people who I barely know. The boys laughed in unison, showing me it maybe wasn't. "Seriously, you don't want to drown or anything. Right?" I said to explain my previous phrase.

"No, no it's fine. Seriously. Now get in the car before you catch a cold." laughed Matt.

"Get. In." I insisted. I sounded like a kidnapper, actually. They looked at each other again and something in their eyes told me they had given up.

"Alright, alright" Matt agreed. My door shut close the same time the back door did. Dominic took the seat behind me, Chris sat in the middle and Matt behind my dad's seat. My dad murmured 'hello' to be polite and asked where we were going and then silence. If it was my mum instead of my dad, the guys behind me would think she was working for FBI. My mum just doesn't shut up, sometimes. But I have to admit that silence was awkward.

We drove to the east Bentonville. The neighbourhood seemed neither rich nor poor but it really was beautiful even with the flooded yards in front of each house.

"I'm here." said Chris and my dad stopped outside a light orange two-floor house with a big yard on the side. Chris sat on Dominic in his attempt to get out. Dominic groaned and then let out a sigh of relief when Chris stepped off him. "Thank you!" he shouted walking away to his house.

"Our house is just some meters away. We can walk now." Dominic offered politely. I could say from Matt's glare to him that he would scream 'What the hell are you doing?' if it wasn't too rude at that moment.

"No. No, it's not necessary" said my dad, "I can't turn around right now, anyway" he added. But now I was curious.

"Where's your house?" I asked turning around to face them.

"Just after this corner over there" Matt pointed somewhere through the windscreen but I didn't look.

"You live next to Dominic?" I asked again and Matt giggled.

"No. I live _with_ Dominic." he smiled. "We live in the same house." I blinked.

"How is this possible?".

"We were exchanged with twins – you may know them,er... Dave and Colin Brown?"

"No, I don't."

"Anyway – after a little talk with them and the bureau, you know, that bureau for those Exchange Programmes, we decided that two of us could both stay in their house. s you know he can't live without me around" he made a pause to wink at Dominic and he frowned. Then he continued." Now Colin lives in my house and Dave at Dom's.", um...Dom?, "And I guess we were lucky there was another guy from this neighbourhood here in the programme. So we got Chris living near.". I couldn't comment to this. I just stayed there looking at him like an idiot.

The car was now stopped out of a light blue house with a huge silver jeep parked at the driveway.

"Thank you sir" Dominic thanked my father.

"Thank you. Bye!" loudly said Matt as he stepped out in the rain, closing the door behind him. The car engine roared when my dad turned the key.

"Oh! Dad, wait!" I pressed the switch on my door and the power window rolled down. "Hey!" I screamed. "You're called 'Dom'?" I asked. Dom turned around and chuckled.

"Yes" he said with a gentle laugh, Matt goofily smiling "Why?"

"I just didn't know."

"Oh, alright then. See ya!"

"Hey! Can I call you _Dom_?"

"Yes. Yes, you can" he laughed again as he turned his head to face me in the rain.

"Okay then. Bye _Dom_."

"Bye, Tori!"

"Bye Matt."

"Bye, Tori." Matt's high pitched laughter faintly sounded.

I laughed too and waved at both of them.


	7. Encounter

After last Thursday, I realized three interesting facts, which, well some of them to be honest, don't require high IQ level but it seems my brain is too slow to make these realizations in time.

So, the first interesting fact, which I couldn't have figured out anyway, is that Dominic's nickname – or maybe his actual name, since almost everyone calls him like that – is 'Dom'. I didn't even know that there was such a name. I mean I've never met anyone called 'Dom' before. I guess I should be more sociable. Good thing is that I like 'Dom' more. It sounds more...manly – maybe? – than 'Dominic'.

The second one is that rain is actually good. Too wet maybe but good and relaxing at some points. Realizing this could make me feel really stupid if there weren't some people who hate rain. I thought I hated rain. But, apparently, I don't anymore.

The last fact, something that I had doubts about – and this should seriously concern me – is that Susan Taylor is a true bitch. I had my doubts about this since I don't believe that a person can be truly evil. Everyone has a nice and a bad side and they can't show both to you the moment you say 'hi' for the first time. I thought this was the problem with Susan. That she was misunderstood. And this should seriously concern me since it proves that I'm naïve. A characteristic that may not be good in the world we live. No. It _can't _begood.

I managed to avoid her on Friday and I was so relived when I opened the door to my house, back from school. But I knew this couldn't last forever. Sooner or later I would have to deal with her paranoia.

And so I did.

My mum thought it would be a good idea to have meat for dinner on Saturday so she got me to do some errands. I went to the nearest market on foot and bought whatever she needed. Shopping groceries wasn't my favourite but it was a nice pastime when I had nothing more interesting to do.

I filled my cart with meat, sauce, orange juice, milk – oh, chocolate! – and the last thing I put in there was two big paper bags of vegetables and fruit. I went to the counter and paid. I took my time walking back home.

Walking back home, though, wasn't as fun as I expected. I bumped into her, dressed into a beautiful casual blue dress and elegant matching shoes and purse.

"Hello, dear! How nice to see you!" she exclaimed. "Where are you going?". I jerked my chin towards the paper-bags in my arms.

"Home" I added to my gesture. She looked at me from head to toe, obviously thinking that my t-shirt and my jeans didn't suit together. Like I'd care.

"Well...How you doing?" she asked, finally, starting her game, of course.

"Good...How about you, Susan?" I said, deciding I would play along for once. She looked around. She was nervous. I broke the silence first. "So? Do you have something for your article yet?" I asked pretending to know still nothing.

"Not really." she said looking down and suddenly her eyes looked up at me "But I have some really interesting stuff. Stuff that everyone would die to know!" she smiled. I gulped.

"Like?"

"Like what you'll read in my article at the end of the month" she gave me a huge smile,showing her teeth.

"Cool." I nodded. I wasn't sure if she was bluffing or not but I was sure I couldn't trust her.

"It was nice to talk to you!" she suddenly said and walked past me. "Oh!" she said two seconds later, my feet pausing."They were soaked yesterday, huh? Are they alright?" she asked,mock concern in her voice. I slowly turned around, taking some moments to calm myself down and sound surprised.

"Who?".

"Ooh, you know who. The British guys!". My eyes swelled. Now she's spying on me?

"No, no, darling. I'm not following you or anything, of course!" she said as if she had read my mind.

"Carol told me she saw you guys in the same car but maybe she misunderstood. But I don't think she did." From that moment I knew I couldn't hide from her and that was sad. Depressing to be honest. I really couldn't bear the thought of being included in her gossip column but for some reason I couldn't bear the thought of Matt, Dom and Chris being in there either, between nasty comments and lies about them. Comments and lies by people who don't even know them. Who would never care to know them.

"I couldn't let them there..." I explained, nervously looking at my feet.

"I know. I know.".

"What do you know about them?"

"I've already told you..."

"I just want you to know, since I know you're trying to hide something from me, that I'll find out more about them and let everyone know. That's why people at school love my columns. Those guys have some secret everybody would die to know. Everyone does have a secret. And a well-kept secret is something everybody would die to know. Wouldn't you?". I chose my next words carefully trying to be honest but still not letting her get any information.

"They don't seem to be bad...or interesting, do they? Why would you care?"

"Aw! You're trying to protect your _boyfriend_? How sweet! If they aren't bad or losers, what's your problem? It's not like I'll reveal any secret, right?" What she said made me furious. I tried to hold myself back but it was impossible.

"What's your freaking problem!? Why embarrassing and exposing a person means so much to you – have you ever wondered? You're so insecure and try to make others pathetic so you feel better! You think that everyone looks up to you but no! You're..." I stopped. I couldn't find a suitable word so I just shook my head.

Her evil smile made me froze. I understood I had made a big mistake. No one, as far as I know, had ever talked to her like that. No one ever spat the truth out in her face like that. Her smile meant revenge, I'm sure. She turned around and left, silent. I didn't say a single word and kept walking home. I knew she would take her revenge sooner or later and waiting for it was scary. The fact I didn't know how was what scared me even more. Maybe, it would be more that a nasty article. I had a bad feeling that she would try to hurt the boys to hurt me. From what she said, she believed I liked them so much that I would be hurt if somebody – anybody – hurt them. Well, I'd be annoyed, that's for sure.

I knew what I had to do. I'd stay away from them until the article was published. Maybe, this would make her believe, having her revenge this way would be pointless. I couldn't let them be vilified for a stupid temper tantrum of mine.

I returned home thinking why I'm doing all that stuff for them; shouting at Susan, getting in trouble, sticking up for them. Susan was right, I defend them, but why? Was it right? I mean, did they want me to defend them?

What would be written about them may give them publicity, good or bad. Maybe that's what the boys wanted – becoming famous. I couldn't know for sure though. I had to talk to them.


	8. Maybe

I spent my whole Sunday preparing a speech where I'd inform Matt, Dom and Chris about Susan's plans. Well, I was mostly fighting with myself. You see, sometimes her 'evil' plans didn't seem evil at all and I had to apologize to myself for thinking so. Some other times, though, I found it impossible not to think that Susan Taylor was a total bitch. Whatever was true I didn't want the boys to think I was crazy so I had to be careful with what I was going to say. Thus the 'speech'.

Monday morning.

I walked down to the long corridor, my notebook and pen in my hands. I knew I would meet Matt, in at least five minutes when the bell would ring, and I repeated my little speech in my head, remembering even where should be a comma and where not.

I entered the big classroom, walking slowly. Not many people in there, yet. I squinted at the desks on my left and saw Matt. He had moved two desks next to each other and was lying on the two chairs, staring at the ceiling. His hands were lying on his tummy and his fingers were tapping along to the rhythm of a song I couldn't hear.

I cautiously looked around and then walked up to him. I squatted down behind him, resisting the sudden urge to touch his beautiful dark hair. I made a small step forward so my face was almost next to his. I looked up just at the point he was staring at.

"Is Dom up there?" I whispered conspiratorially in his ear. The boy made a squeaky noise as he jumped off his offhand bed and his blue eyes swelled. He scared the hell out of me. I fell back on my bum.

"Ouch." I groaned.

"What the hell? Why would you do that!?" he screamed, touching his chest where his heart was under, all eyes on the room on us. I felt bad for scaring him.

"I'm sorry...I didn't do it on purpose..." I apologized. He giggled.

"It's OK." he smiled, giving me his hand to help me up. The moment his hand slipped off of mine I felt his gruff fingers touching on my skin. Gruff, calloused fingers like those of a talented, passionate guitarist. _Maybe he is one _I thought. I smiled, trying to ignore the slight punch I felt in my stomach.

"Thanks."

At that moment, the teacher entered the classroom, making his presence noticeable by shouting 'good morning class'. As always. Matthew moved the desks apart but still close to each other.

As Mr. Jones started lecturing, as always, Matt spoke: "So, how are you, today?" he asked gently, quietly.

"Sleepy..." I replied, stifling a yawn. I was getting used to this kind of answer. "You?".

"Well, pretty bored..." he looked straight forward "until now..." he smiled successfully making me blush. I looked down at my hands, giving the chance to my cheeks to take their normal color again and also trying to remember what I wanted to tell him. _Oh, right!_ I opened my mouth to speak but he gave me an adorable crooked smile and the whole document of my speech was 'deleted'. I hid my red face in my hands.

"Aww, why'd you have to do this right now?" I whined quietly enough so he couldn't hear me.

"What?"

"Nothing." I said trying to calm down once again. "I wanted to talk to you. And to Dom and Chris, too." I put on my serious face.

"What happened?" he copied my expression. For a start I decided to be honest with him so I started speaking and didn't stop until I couldn't come up with any more to say.

"I've been thinking about this all weekend and when I do, sometimes I find it stupid and some other times I think it's really serious." His eyes shone and something in there encouraged me to continue."I seriously don't think that taking care of it on my own would be right, or fair, since it's actually non of my business – _wasn't_ – but I'd also feel bad if I didn't tell you. So-" Mr Jones' voice startled me.

"Is there something you want to share with the class, Mrs Seevers?" I looked up and gulped.

"No." I shook my head "Nothing."

"Keep it shut then." he barked and turned to the white board again.

'Jesus!' I mouthed and let out a sigh of relief. I took a deep breath through my nose and continued talking in a voice lower than a whisper and leaned over my desk to hide my face behind the girl sitting in front of me.

"So...since you came here Susan Taylor is trying to know as much things about you and your friends as she can so she publishes her article in the school newspaper at the end of this month."

"What article?"

"Gossip." I quickly replied and went on "I don't know what she's able to find about your past or whatever, but she may be able to hurt you... And I wouldn't like that..." I looked down at my hands playing with my blue pen. That shine in his eyes, that was gone since I started explaining the problem, was now present again."She...She also thinks that something's going on between us." I waved my hand between our bodies, and pretended trying to stifle a laugh. He raised an eyebrow.

"Really?" Either he was smug for some reason or it was just me, but he sounded like he find it amusing.

"Yes" I answered. "I told her that's stupid but she wouldn't listen anyway...". He shook his head, his serious voice back on.

"As far as I know, me, as well as Dom and Chris, haven't murdered anyone or stolen" he thought for a short moment "well, except for that car I took from that yard..." my eyes widened in shock "But, yeah. What's the worse she can write?". I giggled.

"I don't know what she can write but there's no possibility that you get in her article without gaining at least a _bit_ of bad publicity. She can make up her information.". He rubbed his palm against his chin.

"If she is going to write whatever she wants either it is true or not, then why bother?".

"You're right but... we can as well try for the best, right?" he nodded and we both smile for a second. Then, I let the next words slip out. I had to get this over with. "I-I also thought that it would be better if we don't walk around together in-" He abruptly interrupted me.

"What are you talking about?" he was still whispering but this sounded louder, almost angry.

"It would be better for you...I guess..." I hesitated as he furrowed his brows.

The bell rang getting me out of this awkward situation, and I ran outside. Seconds later he abruptly grabbed my arm and turned me around, making my skin hurt under his grip. I looked down at my arm and back up to his face.

"What do you mean it would be better _for me_?"

"She will write about us...both of us. That we date each other and-"

"So what?"

"I thought it'd bother you..."

"It wouldn't be true anyway!" he said a bit louder. No, it wouldn't be true. And for some odd reason this fact was bothering me. I looked away to hide my emotions, whatever emotion appeared on my face at that moment. I heard him sigh.

"Look...I have talked about that with Dom and Chris and none of us care if _anybody_ writes _anything_ about us. As far as it doesn't harm us or other people around us it's fine." I kept silent while hearing what he was saying. I still couldn't face him. "Tori?" he murmured, calmer now. "Whatever she writes...if you think it could hurt you in any way I'll agree with what you said and that's all. I don't care if she writes about how I stabbed a couple of people while trying rob a bank. There's no reason we stop hanging out and stuff. I mean...There's no reason to do this for me. 'Cause I don't care if what she writes makes me seem like the worst villain". I looked up at him. He was honest, I could tell by the look in his eyes.

Thinking about what Susan told me the other day I thought of him as the guy who cares about publicity, a selfish guy. And now he was somehow telling me I was one of the people around him that he didn't want to be harmed. Could he care about me? Maybe...just maybe. I felt stupid and wanted a deep hole to swallow me right where I was standing.

He raised his hand some inches away of the left of my face but soon brought it down and smiled before turning around to leave.


	9. I never forget

Biology gave me time to think about what was said before, once more paying no attention to whatever was being said. Instead, I played my conversation with Matt over and over again in my head. I did understand what he meant but it seemed impossible for me to understand how anybody could possibly think like that. I've met many people until now and most of them – if not everyone – would probably come up with the eviler plan possible to scar for life anyone who'd vilify them. Those left were just pretending not to care. But they did.

Matt didn't though, and that was what didn't make sense. It was unprecedented.

However what I said sounded to him, I didn't mean to imply I didn't like him or that I didn't want him around. I wanted the contrary, actually. But I also wanted to make it easier for him. Maybe he had misunderstood. I would explain.

I hoped to meet him at the cafeteria during lunch but he wasn't there. Neither were Dom or Chris. Their usual table empty.

Finally, I ran into them after school, walking several meters in front of our group.

Mia was arranging a sleepover at her house that Saturday with Peggy. I didn't want to interrupt so I just touched her arm and made a gesture. She simply nodded before going back to her conversation.

I walked up to them as fast as it could still be considered walking. I made my steps heavier and noisy to make my presence noticeable and not scare them once again, even though I was quite sure they knew I was there. I touched Matt's shoulder gently calling out "Matt?". All three boys turned around to face me.

"Hi guys." I smiled nervously. They smiled back.

"Hey Tori!" said Dom with a literally huge smile on his face. I smiled wider, unable to resist the effect Dom's earnest smile had on me. I turned to Matt.

"Matt? Can I talk to you for a moment?" I asked.

"Sure" he said quietly, signaling the boys to keep walking and leave us behind. Both nodded. Dom raised his eyebrow and winked before Chris dragged him away by the collar of his shirt. I giggled and looked at the girls. They were far behind and, distracted with their plans, wouldn't catch up to us soon.

I hesitated for a moment and finally looked up at Matt. He was looking directly into my hazel eyes, his ocean blue ones outclassing mine. His gaze made me blush and I, instinctively, smiled at my feet.

"So?" he said when he couldn't take the silence anymore, a smile obvious in his voice.

"I wanted to talk to you about that thing..." I started.

"About Susan." he added, encouraging me to continue.

"Yes...well, look. I don't know how a person like you wouldn't worry about bad publicity and all...because that could change people's mind about you...Bad publicity that is." I said, turning my current thoughts into words. He frowned but I continued anyway. If I stopped I knew I wouldn't have the strength to start talking again "I wanted to protect you from anything bad she could say about you. I've never met a person with your opinion on this...thing though. Most people would be mad" - I moved my arms above my head - "if anything bad was said about them but you don't care at all and..." I stopped as I lost the plot of my thoughts the moment I looked into his eyes.

A small smile was playing on his features but rapidly turned to a perfect poker face.

"What do you mean 'a person like me'?" he whispered leaning in. I immediately broke out in a cold sweat, looking away, desperately trying to find an excuse to change the subject. I glimpsed at the two girls behind us, who now were mere meters away. I grabbed his arm and pulled him forward saying 'let's go'.

"Won't you tell me?" he asked. He wouldn't forget about that, would he? I sighed, annoyed I'd eventually give up. I looked away to hide the red crawling all over my face. "What kind of person am I?" he pushed, sounding irritated. I hesitated, bit my lip, chewed my nails for a moment before making an attempt to explain. I could lie. He'd believe me but I would fail miserably to think of a good lie at that very moment of nervousness.

"You're... handsome...and smart...and – though I don't know you that well – you're probably talented as fuck-" my hands spontaneously flew up to my mouth to cover it to the realization I swore. Matt kept silent for a moment that seemed like forever.

I felt so embarrassed, tears threatening to prove that. What was I doing? Why was I telling him that? Why was I so embarrassed? Why would the truth be so difficult to be expressed? _Why I believed all these stuff?_

When Matt eventually responded, it sounded like he was laughing, and that made things even worse.

"Talented?" he said sarcastically and stopped walking, making me stop as well. I knew that sooner or later I had to look at him so I nodded, gaining time to hide the tears, blinking. I finally looked up and he locked his eyes on mine. Before I could realize what was going on I was in his arms. He hugged me tight, my face pressed into his chest, his arms squeezing me. I was shocked. I hesitatingly wrapped my arms around him, hugging him back. "You don't know what you're saying." he said in my ear. I giggled, finally taking it easy and make my breath slow down, until I realized he was actually hugging me. My heartbeat went crazy.

"Awwww!" I heard someone calling behind me. Susan of course. _Of course._ Matt and I broke our hug but his arms remained around my waist. I looked at him, waiting for a sign; what should we do? I saw the smug look on his features before he looked down at me and winked, letting me know the 'game' had started.

I saw Peggy and Mia passing past us. Peggy looking worried. Mia smiling slyly. Whatever they were thinking, it could wait, so I mouthed 'later'.

Susan looked at me evilly, despite that her 'aww' sounded cute. She looked at my hands which were now resting on Matt's chest. I felt my cheeks burning and immediately took them away.

"Oh, hello..." he said extending the last vowel and snapping his fingers multiple times, silently asking for her name. Damn! I wish I had a camera so I could see that face of hers again. Priceless. I stifled a laughter.

"Susan." she hissed.

"Oh, yeah. Right." he replied uninterestedly. She ignored him and looked back at me.

"You said he wasn't your boyfriend." she mocked a sad tone. And that's where I took charge.

"Oh! But I thought you knew!" I squealed as my hand flew up to my lips, mock surprise. She threw her hair back, over her shoulder

"Ha! Of course I knew!" she laughed, playing nice for once again. "But tell about you two! Anything special about your relationship?"

Matt placed his hand on my arm as he released me and took a step closer to her, smiling. Trying to be polite of course.

"Look. Susan, I know what you think – or better – I know what you want. I'm only gonna tell you this: me and Tori, here" he made a gesture towards me "aren't a couple. If you'd like to think so and let other do too, then it's okay. I mean wouldn't it be great, anyway?" he softly chuckled. "But I can pretend I'm her boyfriend if it pleases you. I'd love to, to be honest" _Pretend_ I internally repeated the word in disappointment. _Wait, what?_

I saw her sour as Matt kept his little speech on.

"I have the impression that you...uh, never mind. You know what I mean, don't you? Thing is, I don't really know what you want from us...Tori happened to tell me some things but I still can't figure this out." he shrugged and smiled warmly "So, will you enlighten me?" he tilted his head to the right and looked up in the green eyes of the taller girl. The priceless expression remained on Susan's face and I kept staring at her to make sure I'd remembered it for a long time. She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. I noticed the anger growing in her eyes as she couldn't find the proper words to say. Matt came and pushed me gently to leave. His hand on my waist once again.

"You...skinny pretentious wanker!" she screamed and paced away angrily. The sound her heels produced on the cement faded the furthest she went. I laughed, pleased, relieved.

"Nice speech there, Mr Bellamy!" I commented. He laughed and my heart skipped a beat. _Oh, God!_ I thought and gasped. _What!? What was that again?_

"Why, thank you Mrs Seevers!" he nodded. I chuckled.

We kept silent for some minutes, him looking around and taking deep breaths of fresh air, me enjoying the moment as his arm remained around my waist. Finally, it was him who broke the silence.

"Handsome, huh?" he teased. I turned to look at him, confused at first but blushing when I got what he was talking about. He bit his lip in his attempt to keep his perfect poker face.

"You can't let that just be and forget it ,can you?" I yelped. He let out the throaty laugh he was attempting to stifle all this time. He leaned in and winked at me.

"I never forget..." he whispered.


	10. Lovey Dovey Atmosphere

Wednesday morning.

I walked out of the house and took a deep breath in through my nose. The wind seemed to be colder today. It was October already.

The last month had gone by so fast and I could say it was a fairly good month; even with the trouble I'd got in over the time. All the trouble I, and Matt, had with Susan Taylor, the editor of the gossip column in the school newspaper, Mia's silly problems I had to come up with a solution for and her quarrel with Peggy, and the romance that took in between most of my friends kept me busy all this time and I was rather happy all those seemed to be more important than school and homework.

I went over to Mia's and walked to school together, like every morning. Only, today I was in the mood for some chit chat and Mia seemed quite pleased with that, even though she was the one talking more, as usual.

We arrived a bit late; apparently the chit chat being the cause of it. As we walked down the aisle, I spotted Matt with Dom and Chris on each side, leaning against his locker. He was holding a pack of paper in his hands and was furiously flipping through the pages.

"Hi" I cheered as we went closer.

"'Morning!" sang Chris.

"Hello" cheered Mia from next to me. I turned my face to look at her and she had a bashful smile on, her cheeks bright pink. It was something I didn't have the chance to see usually. She's always been the laid-back , confident one. I was the one blushing. She batted her eyelashes. I followed her dreamy gaze and saw Dom having a similar, more teethy smile. Ah huh!

"Hello!" he said happily as always. Matt didn't speak lost in the text he was reading. He only took his face off the paper to look at us, a little pout playing on his lower lip, his eyes sad and wide. I instinctively took a step closer and squeezed his shoulder.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"School newspaper." said Chris simply when his shorter friend didn't relpy.

"Uh-oh" I whispered, blowing air through my lips. Was it that bad? Was it worse than we expected? Matt's expression seemed to prove that. I suddenly felt guilty. I shouldn't have heard him, I should have staid away from him. Although I didn't like that, I would have to deal with his sad face now. My hand faltered halfway as I went to take the paper from Matthew's hand. I didn't want to see it but unfortunately I had to.

The brunet jerked his chin at the page he was looking at and I unwillingly leaned closer to see. With his index finger he pointed at the passage he wanted me to see and I quickly read over the text.

_'The joy of being back to school is huge as a new year of fun begins. _

_Though we are sad that some of our most zestful and gossip worthy friends have graduated, we have some interesting freshies this year, ready to take their place in the world of gossip. Needless to say that some of their stories are astounding._

_The sexy freshman Brian Adams, brother of the graduate Nancy Adams...'_

I eagerly skipped the part where poor Nancy Adams was being humiliated. I gulped and read directly to the part that interested me.

_'Amongst our previously mentioned freshmen, we're glad to have three guys coming directly from Devon, England, thanks to the Exchange Program our school is pleased to participate in. The three boys were exchanged with the twins Dave and Colin Brown and Mary Fisher. Apparently, Dave and Colin weren't really delighted to leave our town and live in cloudy Devon for a whole year and not few of you were disappointed to find out that the replacers of the charming twins were Matthew Bellamy and Dominic Howard. However, Fisher isn't going to be missed by many people as the blonde nerd was described my many as the creeper of the school. We have to thank her, though, for leaving her place to the surprisingly hot Chris Wolstenholme._

_Chris seems to have a bunch of fans already as girls arrive in droves outside the locker rooms every time he changes. The slightly chubby boy, however, does have many in common with Mary, emulating her lone personality which creeps many people._

_Dominic Howard, the blonde friend, wishes he could have some of Colin's charm and skills in sports that magnetizes girls but he appears to be the ultimate personification of clumsiness and the jester of the gym. Again, not less creepier than Mary._

_And speaking of creepers, the third one of the newly added group of gossip worthy students is Matthew Bellamy, seemingly the leader of said group. Maybe, he is trying to poise his lack of charm and good looks with his bossiness. While some girls fancy him, like Tori Seevers (in first grade as well), rat faces aren't on the list of the hotties, for obvious reasons._

_Tori has been spotted many times sharing sweet moments with the Rat Face, Matthew Bellamy. I bet so many girls are crying for him right now so I assume he's one of the guys who prefer dating the not so fun and hot.'_

I slowly looked away from the article and up to Matt's face. I let out a sigh of relief and bit my lip as not to laugh. I smiled at him and his pout became more overt.

"Am I a Rat face?" he whimpered. I couldn't keep the laughter anymore. I laughed into his face and threw my arms around his neck, pulling him closer for a tight hug.

"No," I laughed, extending the vowel. It was funny how he was so worried about that when everything else was far more serious than the 'rat face'. But it was also a big relief. When I walked in and saw him standing there, with that sad expression drawn all over his face I knew that something was wrong but what I read was much better than what I expected it to be. "You're not a rat face!" He said nothing for a moment.

"You sure?"

"Yes! Your face is..." I cleared my throat "beautiful..." I almost whispered the last word. I pulled back to look around and was relieved to see that everybody was too busy to pay attention to us; Chris was playing on his phone while Dom and Mia were leaning closer to each other as they were chatting.

I looked back at Matt's now smiling face. He almost looked like a satisfied child.

"I'm handsome, right?" he slyly asked.

"Shut up." I snapped sarcastically and we both broke into laughter. That was all we needed after such a stressful moment.

The bell rang and a bunch of girls passed by. The curiously looked at us and burst into fangirly giggles. Me and Matt, both simultaneously glimpsed at our intertwined fingers between us. I nervously laughed and took a step away letting our hands fell on our sides. I felt heat on my cheeks and instinctively started playing with my rings.

"So...gotta go to class." I said as I took my sketchbook out of my locker.

"Yep. Me, too." he smiled as he stood still, staring at me. I closed my locker.

"Bye"

"Bye"

We met again on our way to the cafeteria.

I had just walked out of the classroom. I thought again of the details on Susan's article that made me laugh. No matter how offensive what she wrote was, I had to admit it was hilarious. It was hilarious just to imagine how smug she would feel now, thinking how she offended Matt and his friend while, in fact, Matt didn't care as we knew from the beginning.

Rat Face.

I laughed out loud, as I kept walking, too lost in my thoughts to care who heard me.

I pitied her when I realized just how pathetic what she was doing was. Running down people just for fun, just to feel important, just to have 'friends'. She must have a good side, a side that nobody knows about and no one would ever do. Susan could be a friend rather than an enemy, giving that she showed her true self. Yes. I strongly believed she could be a nice person. A caring one. Maybe she just hadn't ever had the chance to have as much attention as she needed, someone to care about her and show affection. Maybe that was the reason for her bitchish behavior to _everyone_. I'd love to help her. I'd really do but I had no idea how to do this and I don't want to know.

And then, Matt's face randomly popped up in my head. It was something I should have got used to by now, since, for some reason I was still working out, this happened quite often lately but I still felt my cheeks slightly flushed. It was normal, on one hand. He was one of the people I was hanging out with the most lately and I was having a great time every time. On the other hand, though, why didn't I constantly have Mia, or Dom or Chris in my head? Maybe I am..._Nahh!_ Even the thought of that made me feel ten times more awkward that I naturally was.

"Ahh!" I heard my own voice squeal as two fingers came out of nowhere to dig in my sides. I covered my mouth with both hands to stop my screaming giggles coming out. I turned around, eyes wide open for good measure, to face the boy I was thinking about a second ago before the shock of the tickling took over my mind.

I felt my cheeks burning again. The ten-times-more-awkward feeling came back as I made the connection; I was thinking of him and now he was standing there before me. That was the time I always feared the wrong person would read my thoughts. Or what if I said something out loud?

As I turned around a huge smile appeared on his lips to show his rebel tooth. I couldn't resist smiling back no matter how much I tried not to.

"Hi!" he cheered.

"You scared me!" he laughed aloud as I playfully slapped his arm.

"Sorry" I giggled to the sound of struggling with the 'r'.

"How come you're not in the cafeteria, yet?" I asked, aware of his unceasing appetite for cafeteria quality pizza.

"Ah, that lady...that blonde, round lady with the puffy cheeks? Y'know..."

"Mrs Bailey?"

"Oh, yes! Mrs Bailey...she wanted to explain how we should work on that project and stuff."

"What's it about?"

"The project?" he shrugged, tilting his head to the left "I don't know...it must be...interesting, though." I laughed, playing with a strand of my hair. "So, then, I saw you here and-"

"And you thought 'why not scare Tori to death?', eh?" I giggled again.

"Nooo!" he squealed "I just thought, why walk alone? Let's go with my good friend, Tori." It could be just me, but it sounded like he emphasized the word 'friend' ever so slightly. No, I was going crazy.

"Oh, really?" another giggle escaped my lips against my will "Glad you did, then." I gave him a teethy smile. "Where's Dom?" I asked, leaning around him to look at the empty corridor behind. Matt let out a sly high pitched giggle.

"Ah, he's already there. That arsehole, preferred to go with Mia than with me." he shook his head from side to side in mock disappointment. My eyebrows shot up when I heard Mia's name.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, he's trying to..."he made a dramatic pause and continued, all his finger moving in a piano-like way in front of his face "seduce her."

"Ha! Seriously?" He laughed again.

"Yeah!"

"Well, he fancies her, then?"

"Well, Dom...Dom's hitting on girls quite a lot. Not that it's bad but you know. You can never be sure, y'know?" I softly laughed. I couldn't imagine Dom as the guy who's constantly looking for chicks. Matt seemed more like it, to be honest. "Hasn't she told you who she fancies?" I shook my head negatively.

"Nope. But she's not getting away with it anymore. I'm going to properly interrogate her and she won't deny anything!" He softly laughed again.

"Who do _you_ fancy?" he asked, coming closer and wiggling his eyebrows.

"What!?" I laughed. I felt my cheeks burning, for yet another time that morning.

"Who." he repeated firmly, yet playfully.

"Wha- no one!"

"No one?" he raised one mistrustful eyebrow. His fingers dug in my ribs and I squirmed away, screaming. He wrapped one arm around my waist to hold be in place and prodded my side with his fingers again, gaining the same reaction by me. I tried to escape by tickling him as well, but he gracefully avoided my fingers and wrapped his arms around me again, hugging me from behind. He giggled in my ear as I tried to catch my breath, giggling along.

I turned my face to look at him, looking at many other faces until I reached his.

Wait, what?

My eyes shot back at the faces again; maybe, around twenty faces staring at both of us. Just standing there and staring, throwing in some whispers and giggles here and there. Gossip in this school was just overwhelming.

Matt took his arms away. He looked at our audience and his face took that annoyed, serious, sarcastic expression that made my day every time. He stretched his arms at his sides and questioningly shook his head.

They snapped out of their temporary trance and started leaving, throwing in a whisper and a giggle every some seconds for good measure, looking behind their backs. So, now, we were officially the couple of the month? Great!

When the corridor was completely empty I looked up at Matt, him looking down at me, too. We both burst into hysterical laughter, him imitating my moves like a mirror as I doubled clenching my tummy.

Before, we could even catch our breaths, he grabbed my hand and before I could realize, we were entering the cafeteria.

He paused at the door. He questioningly quirked his eyebrows. I glanced at the people sitting and eating. That would be fun. I looked back at him and dragged him in. We walked over to our table holding hands, eliciting confused looks and sly smiles and delirious murmuring. Interesting.

I blushed and looked down but didn't pull my hand out of his grip. It was funny how just some gossip stuff could turn every rumor into reality in their minds. And I bet Susan wasn't enjoying it. Having somebody being the famous one instead of her even for a day could be a really painful experience. And all because of her.

I sat down next to Mia, chuckling. Me and Matt both said our 'hey's and everyone went back to eating, except of my curious friend of course.

"Are you dating Matt!?" he whispered in my ear, her eyes rapidly moving side to side, from me to Matthew. "Why didn't you tell me!?" I took a piece of lettuce from her plate and started gnawing on it, trying to calm down my rapid heartbeat. I giggled.

"Calm down, Mia. No. Of course not!" I said, a bit of bitterness in my voice that I hoped she hadn't noticed.

"And then what was all this!?" she hurried to ask.

"Okay. First, calm down. Second...did you read Taylor's article?" I lightly jerked my head towards the table she was sitting with the hottest and most famous people in school. Mia shook her head negatively. "Well, she wrote about me and Matt dating, which isn't true of course, but, yeah, we ran into each other before we came here and we were just talking and those girls were standing there watching us and apparently people believe we're dating so I guess it's kinda funny, isn't it?" She raised one eyebrow and smiled slyly. _Oh shit._

"Just talking, eh?"

"Mia..." I whined.

"Ah, c'mon, Tori! I saw you two talking and it's not like _just_ talking."

"Mia! We're just friends! Friends!"

"Yeah, yeah, sure! All giggly and flirty but friends. Got it." She was so pissing me off partly because we weren't dating, we weren't flirting with each other and all this was a lie that even my best friend believed, and partly because something didn't feel right with it. And it just felt good that me and Matt were pretending to be together even for a lunch in the school cafeteria. But however it felt I couldn't get this conversation going like this.

"Well, I think it's not our fault," I focused on a toothpick on the table "I think it's just all this lovey-dovey atmosphere around us, right?" I looked up at her, making sure to exaggerate with the implying look on my face. She raised her eyes to look at me, shocked.

"What?"

"What?" I repeated her question.

"What...?"

"You tell me..." I quirked one eyebrow and leaned in closer.

"What the hell are you talking about!?" she suddenly raged.

"I'm talking about you and Dom, Mia! What's going on with you two?"

"Oh..." her infuriated look turned into a calmer, knowing one "that. Well...nothing. I mean, what could be going on?" she let out a nervous giggle.

"Oh, come ooon! You interrogate me every day but you tell me nothing? And since when don't you tell me about this kind of stuff?" Her whole expression lightened up a bit and she smiled, looking at me through her eyelashes.

"Well, it's like...um...you know..." she smiled almost bashfully, playing with her uneaten food with her fork "Aww!" she said a bit louder "He's so cute and so funny and so sweet and, oh my God, his smile is so perfect and I think I like him!" she said in one breath, whispering loud enough for me to hear. I could do nothing but smile at her enthusiastic outburst. I squeaked happily and leaned forward to hug her.

"That's so amazing!" I giggled as I pulled away. "Has he asked you on a date?"

"Mm...No...You think he likes me?" she looked at me with puppy eyes.

"Yes! Of course! The way he's looking at you. I'm sure he does!" I suddenly felt a tapping on my back. I turned to see Matt standing next to my chair.

"He does, huh?" he smiled and sat back down at his chair. I turned to look at Mia. Both shocked. I turned back at him and shook my head.

"W-What?"

"Nothing," he chuckled "Just saying."

"Oh...alright then." I smiled. I winked at Mia and she let out a girly high pitched giggle.

"Alright..." he prolonged the last vowel and chuckled softly. "Banana, love?" he asked in a mock lovey tone and batted his lashes, holding out a banana.

"Yeah, thanks." I managed to say through happy giggles. The damn lovey atmosphere had a seriously bad effect on me. I took the banana from his hand, still smiling like crazy when he turned back to his conversation.

Mia cleared her throat with a soft cough, making me snap out of my silly trance. I looked at her raised eyebrows, eyes wide.

"Whaa..?"

She jerked her head towards the skinny boy sitting next to me.

"You tell me. What going on with you two?" she repeated the words I had used a while ago, only in a more slier way.

"What? With Matt?" I whispered and she slowly nodded. "Nothing!"

"Nothing?" she slowly repeated.

"Nothing."

"You sure?"

I frowned. I looked at the head of dark spiky hair behind me, then back to the girl in front of me. I was looking back and forth for a moment. She questioningly arched her eyebrows.

"No." I said in a pout, firmly replying to her unspoken question. _No._


	11. Realised I

The rest of the week was just dull, drown into the routine. Luckily, there were those moments with my friends - and Matt - that lit up my days. And the lovey atmosphere is still present.

Matt, Dom and Chris are now into our group. Officially. Matt sits next to me every day in the cafeteria and we're constantly annoying every single person around us. Apart from that, everyone seems to like him. Especially Beth. It seems like she fancies him. Peggy blurted it out the other day.

"_I'm not sure I like him this way..." she murmured, answering my question "Who do you like?" she asked shyly before I could comment on what she said._

_It took me some moments to fully understand her question. I was about to answer something indefinite but then the real essence of the question scratched on the back of my mind making me myself wonder: _Who do you like? _Truth is I was really close with Matt lately. He made me feel good, comfortable. I'm open with him and most of the time he's the only person I'd like to hand out with. But do I _like_ him? This way? _

_I have never been this close to anyone before, not even to Mia, so he could be my best friend without me even knowing. I have never fell in love with someone before. The few relationships I had in the past weren't exactly the right thing. I didn't feel that fire, those butterflies, the shivers everybody's talking about, so how could I be sure? How could I reply Peggy's question when I, myself, didn't know the correct answer. And yet again I felt like I was starring in a soap opera. Such a big deal._

_Peggy's stare made me snap out of my little trance. The answer escaped my mouth reluctantly, the simplest I could think of and could get me out of this awkward situation. "No one." Peggy only nodded before she continued some seconds later._

"_You must like somebody...I mean I – maybe – like Tyler, Mia probably likes Dom, Beth likes Matt-" she ceased herself with her hands on her mouth, eyes widening in fear, my own following suit. "Oh, crap! No. No. Mark. Not Matt. Mark! " she screamed._

"_Beth likes Matt?" I asked, shocked._

"_No!"_

"_Peggy." I deadpanned._

"_You didn't hear me saying this!" she freaked out._

"_Why...?" _

"_She didn't want me to tell you...Fuck.." she winced._

"_Why?"_

"_She made me swear I wouldn't..."_

"_Why?" I asked again but she hesitated. "Peggy. I won't tell her. "_

"_She thinks there's something between you and Matthew and that she would ruin everything if you knew. Please, don't tell her I told you!"_

And what about me and Matt? We spend a lot of time together, lately, that's the truth. But nothing more. As far as I know at least.

At school, you'd probably find us discussing something about 'zetas' (his little nick for aliens), unaware of what's going on around us. But nothing more.

The other day, he was waffling about how he'd love to meet Jesus Christ.

"_I'd like to meet Jesus Christ." he blurted with the most neutral expression. I raised an eyebrow._

"_You'd like to meet who?"_

"_Jesus Christ" he repeated with a smile "You know, I'd like to ask him about all those miracles and stuff he did, how he did it? I'd definitely ask him to walk on the water. And teach me how to do it. That would be cool." _

Damn, he's crazy. He's that mysterious guy who always enjoys to maintain the mystery. Or simply fucking around with people's minds, I guess.

And it's finally Friday now.

We were all walking out of the school parking lot. Mia's voice covering everyone else's "...but we could order some pizza and watch a movie, instead, huh? - or maybe go to the cinema!? There are some good movies playing. Oh! Oh! What about that drinking game Matt was talking about?" she gabbled, Matt chuckling quietly.

I smiled, nodding and wasn't surprised to see that most of the others did the same. She's the one who has always been arranging our schedule for the weekends or holidays and that's only because she's always so enthusiastic about going out; unlike me. I prefer relaxing in my bed, watching some horror film and eating ice-cream. Yes, I know. I'm so much fun.

"But..." mumbled Peggy before she was cut off by Mia "I don't accept any 'but'! We're going out. It will be the first time we're going out with the guys – we need to go out and..." I stopped paying attention to what she was saying, knowing exactly what were the following words, and picked up my pace, leaving them all several meters behind, until I was hardly able to hear the brunette's voice.

Two cold hands covered my eyes and I stopped walking, making sure I wouldn't humiliate myself by falling on the ground or crashing into something. The two hands pressed harder on my face, forcing my head to lean backwards just a bit. Warmth radiated on my cheek from another face close to mine. I could hear a shaky breath near my ear, a soundless giggle. The person was awaiting for me to guess. _MattMattMattMattMattMatt._

I touched the icy cold hands with my fingertips. My fingers proceeded on praying the skinny arms of the person behind me, who had, now, pressed his body against mine. I touched a cold nose and squeezed it a bit, hearing a high pitched giggle for only a second. My hands traveled up and touched the soft short spiky hair. I tugged it causing a squeak to escape the person's mouth.

"Matt...?" the name slipped out of my mouth. The hands, within seconds, were replaced by a warm hug around my waist. A sigh of relief escaped my lips. It was indeed him.

"Hello." he said playfully.

I started walking again with Matt by my side this time. The little annoying voice inside my head was screaming. My heart was beating faster. I was like one of those fangilrs now or what? I was afraid my heart would be what would join the splashy noises our shoes made stepping onto the wet ground until Matt finally spoke.

"What are you doing on Saturday?" he asked in his seductive voice. I stifled a giggle.

"What? Are we still playing couple?"

"Aah, if you want I guess?" we both laughed, Matt squeezing me closer to him before taking his arm away from my waist. "So? What are you gonna do?"

"I don't know...what are you doing on Saturday?" I asked, red started creeping into my face. He chuckled, the smugness in the sound obvious, able to feel my discomfort, like all the other times in the past, and shrugged.

"Going out..." he said "if you come too?" he added in an expression that was proving he was indeed enjoying making me feel nervous. I turned my head away from his stare. "Aren't you going out with everyone else?" he sighed, interpreting my movement as a negative reply.

"I don't know..." I shrugged "I have some homework to do..." I added to myself, remembering all the research I was bound to do and feeling so bad for not going out with them. With him.

"Homework?" he pouted "You deny me for homework?" I laughed looking at the ground.

"Maths..." I copied his expression. He paused for a long moment to stare at me again, letting me conjecture on what he could be thinking about.

"Maybe, I can help you." he finally exclaimed. I looked away, knowing I would probably need his help but being too stubborn to ask for it. "Yeah, yeah I know you're like_ the best_ in Maths but you know..." he mocked me "I could at least help you finish it sooner." he then added in a more serious manner. "And I guess you could explain some Chemistry stuff I don't get?"

"I..Err...Yeah. I..I guess I can." I mumbled.

"So this is a 'yes'? " he asked, even though he already knew that was a 'yes'.

"Yes!" I said too loud that Matt jumped a little before he let his adorable giggle cover any other sound for some beautiful moments.

"So it's a date then." he exclaimed in that seductive voice that made my heart skip a beat or two, once again.

On that Saturday morning, Mia called me to tell me she couldn't go out. She was grounded because she had her dog out for a walk and let him poop in her old grumpy neighbour's yard while she was texting and wasn't paying attention. The neighbour sued them and so Mia's parents were really angry. I told her I couldn't either and she squealed in a mock shocked tone.

"Why?" I pouted, not able to resist telling her about my little 'date' with Bellamy.

"Uh..." I faltered "Well...I'm going over to Bellamy's to study." I said quickly. A pause.

"Ohhhh." she exclaimed slyly "Studying, yeah. Got it."

"Studying, Mia. Just studying. He needs help with Chemistry and I need help with Maths; fair trade of knowledge."

"Maths...You plus him minus the clothes-"

"Don't!" I hurried to cease her silly rhyme "I'm going. To. Study. Got it?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Call me to tell me how it goes, 'kay?"

"'Kay, bye." I said and hanged up, regretting telling her. Everyone else called me as well to inform me about the new plans but I told them all I had to study for that test, not making the mistake to tell them about studying with Matt again.

I spent a lot time in front of the full body mirror in my room, checking myself, acting like those blondies in the movies when getting ready for their first date, wondering what was wrong with me. I grabbed my bag from the sofa and rushed out of the house. I glimpsed at my watch.

5:20 pm.

My dad couldn't drive me today so I had to hurry to catch the bus. And I was supposed to be at Matt's in ten minutes. _Great_ I thought.

I took a deep breath and started running. Not my favourite activity, apparently. The nearest bus stop was ten minutes away though, normal pace, so I usually need fifteen minutes if I'm in a good mood.

I saw the bus arriving and panicked. If I missed it I'd have to walk, or worse call Matt to cancel our meeting. I crossed the street, running, not stopping to look if it was safe. A car stopped abruptly and the breaks creaked, making me shake a little but I still did not stop. With the corner of my eye I saw the old man in the car shaking his head in disapproval. I reached the stop just on time and jumped in the bus just before the door closed.

Several minutes later, I was at Brown's, breathless. I raised my hand, ready to knock on the dark wooden door but the door was pulled out of the way before my fist could make contact with it. Matt was standing there with his beautiful smile on, wearing a plain dark brown sweater and baggy light brown pants. He was like a little teddy bear. Right behind him, a short round woman was standing with a warm smile upon her face. Her shoulder-length amber hair reminded me of Matt when we first met. And her slightly pointy nose and small pinkish lips made him look a lot like her. She could be his biological mother.

"Hi" greeted Matt excitedly, his blue eyes shining.

"Hi! Sorry I'm late..." I squealed unable to hide my excitement. I leaned a bit to the side "Hello, Mrs Brown." I added, greeting the small woman .

"Hello, honey. Come on in. It's so nice to meet you, Tori." she made a gesture letting me in her house. I hold out my hand but she pulled me in a tight hug.

"Nice to meet you too, Mrs Brown." I said politely as she let me breathe. She smiled.

"Matt was really excited that you were coming over tonight..." the dark stare appearing on Matt's face stopped her and made her change the subject. "I guess you two should start with your homework...Tori? Would you like something to eat, sweetheart?" she asked me kindly, as she made her way to the kitchen.

"No, no, thank you." I said.

"Maybe something to drink then? I just made this delicious lemonade!" she suggested happily.

"I heard lemonade? I want some lemonade!" a voice demanded, coming from the hall. From the corner emerged Dom's face with that huge grin he usually has. He marched theatrically into the kitchen and I heard the blonde lady laugh. Matt sighed and shook his head.

"Dom?" he called in his deep voice.

"Yeah?" Dominic stacked his head out of the doorway. Matt pointed at me. "Oh, Tori!" he cheered as he saw me and cursed "Ah, shoot-" when he spilled some of his lemonade on the floor. He ran to me and gave me a hug.

"Good boy, Dom!" said Matt and patted his head like he was a dog.

"Hello, Dom." I hugged him back, laughing at Matt's comment.

"Hey, how are you?"

"Good. How are you?" I asked.

"Fine. Just about to play some videah games." he exclaimed happily, moving his hands around and wiggling his butt.

"Cool!" I shook my head in approval, not really impressed by the idea of playing video games right now. I admired his ability of looking elegant even in track suits. "Nice shirt." I eventually complimented.

"You think so?" he looked down and prayed his red shirt "Thanks! You look great, too, Tori!" he said sincerely.

"Thanks, Dominic!"

"Hey, Dom. Super Mario's waiting for you." Matt pointed to the living room and Dom made a sour, yet playful face to Matt, then left saying: 'Okay, okay! Have fun studying!'.

"Let's go?" Matt pushed me to the hallway with a gentle move, making me go first but soon I was the one following. He opened the second door on the right of the corridor and rushed in. I entered the room behind him.

It was huge. The walls were a light shade of green and the room was tidier than I thought it would be. I imagined Mrs Brown struggling to put away books and clothes and controllers and laughed out loud to the thought .

"What?" I faced a quite startled Matt. I shook my head.

"Nothing." He shrugged it off and picked up some books and sat on the floor next to me.

"Maths or Chemistry first?" he asked. I shrugged, unable as always to make a decision so he picked Maths. I showed him all the homework I had to do and what I couldn't understand. He tapped his lip with his index finger and immediately started explaining me what I had to do, effortlessly, a perfect speech of a professor, like he had been practicing it for weeks. However, I was so dump that I couldn't understand even the simplest things and made a ton of silly questions but he didn't mind explaining over and over again.

I looked at the time when we had finally finished with maths. It was 7:40 pm already.

"Wow. That took us longer than I expected." I commented and Matt giggled.

"It was fun though, wasn't it?" he winked, making me blush.

"Yeah, having to explain a bunch of nonsense to me must be so much fun." I murmured, looking at my hands. He gave his most adorable laugh and patted my back.

"C'mon, let's take a break."

He guided me out of the room and to the living room, to find a muddy Dom entering the house.

"What the fuck have you been doing!?" Matt pointed at his dirty and wet clothes.

"Football..." he mumbled in an innocent tone, as if a child was trying to defend himself to his parents. Matt mocked a serious expression and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Aw, come on!" pouted Dom but his face lit up immediately "Do you want a hug?" he paced towards Matt.

"No! Fuck you!" yelled Matt, backing off. The blonde managed to squeeze Matt into a hug. He squirmed trying to escape, only to get his hair ruffled, a dark muddy mess on his head. "Thank you, asshole..." he murmured and ran his fingers through his hair, dusting the dried mud off.

"Hey! Watch your tongue!" shouted Mrs Brown from the kitchen, Everyone laughing. Dominic turned to me.

"See? He's mean." I cracked up laughing, the two boys following a second later. Matt headed to the kitchen while Dom went to change and I made myself comfortable on the large couch, opposite the kitchen door.

"Get me a clean shirt" Matt demanded and Dominic murmured a quiet 'Okay', opening a door.

"Hey, Matt?" he yelled, some minutes later.

"Yeah?" replied Matt.

"Chris's gonna come over in a while to play video games." he was still yelling when he came back in the living room. Bellamy came out of the kitchen and this time he replied only with a facepalm when he saw the shirt Dom was holding. "We will be quiet, I promise. You can go to the basement if you want..." advised Dominic, handing Matt the red flowery button-up shirt.

"What the fuck is this." he said firmly, waving the shirt around in the air in front of the blond's face. Dom's lips curled into a wide innocent smile.

"I thought you wanted a shirt."

"I didn't want your shirt." he shook his head, disappearing into his room.

"I know you like my clothes, don't deny it!" Dom shouted, hurt.

"No, I don't."

"Oh, really? And why were you wearing them yesterday, then?" Dom shot back with his arms crossed over his chest. My eyebrows shot up in disbelief. Matt appeared again with a grim stare burning on Dom.

"Pff! Bullshit! I wasn't." he disputed.

"You were!" he turned to me "You should see him dancing!" he stood up and wiggled his bum, his arms bend moving up and down like chicken wings. "Like a chicken on shrooms!" he cackled.

"Really?" I asked and once again cracked up laughing hysterically when Dominic nodded. The brunet's lips curled up in only an imperceptible smile but disappeared within seconds as he turned on his heel and marched into the kitchen. Dominic laughed and winked at me. He came and plopped down on the couch next to me, making himself comfortable.

"He'll get over it." he reassured.

Matthew came out of the kitchen and handed me a plate of homemade cookies once I stood up and he carried two glasses of lemonade.

"Follow me." he said, making his way to the hall.

"Boys?" called out a feminine voice. "I'm going out for a bit, alright?"

"Okay." called out Matt "Have fun!"

"Thank you!" she sang and a door closed.

Matt opened the door next to his temporary room. There were stairs heading to the basement, I supposed, and I followed behind him.

When we entered the room I froze to my steps and my jaw dropped.

In the middle of the spacious room were a set of black drums, a dark blue bass and a red electrical guitar, as well as an acoustic one leaning on a black stand. A black upright piano was placed against the opposite wall. A tiny red vase with little white flowers was resting on top of it with two frames of equal size on every side. Two spotlights were lighting the 'stage' and opposite the instruments a dark blue timeworn couch was placed. Next to the couch was a floor lamp that matched it. A plain old coffee table was placed in the other corner and a stained small beige carpet was lying in the center of the room, reaching the couch. One part of the brick walls was covered in photos, probably of the Brown family, and posters of bands and random lyrics. The place looked like one of those garages you see in movies where bands rehearse their songs, the place I'd definitely want to own if I had a band, that is. But Matt hadn't told me he had a band. Maybe it's the Brown brothers' and not Matt's. However, I was pretty sure he apparently wouldn't be allowed to interfere with such equipment if it wasn't his.

"Are you coming?" he asked. I walked up to him.

"Are those yours?" I pointed to the beautiful instruments.

"Yes." he simply answered. He took the plate off my hands and placed it on the small table, next to the glasses of lemonade.

"You're in a band?" He stopped and stared at me for a prolonged moment.

"Yes..." he looked at me like I was some short of zeta or something. I froze for a moment, thinking, feeling hurt that he'd never told me before.

"With Dom?"

"Yes."

"And Chris?"

"Yes?"

"And why haven't you ever told me?" I whispered like we were sharing a secret.

"I thought you knew. I had told you I'm playing the guitar, and Dom the drums and Chris the bass, right? I thought it was kinda obvious..." he frowned, imitating my own expression.

"No, it wasn't?" I was shouting at him now.

"We're friends and we're playing some instruments but we wouldn't have our own band?" he questioned.

"Oh, really? Well, I don't think I should have told you many things then, since they're obvious, huh?" I kept shouting at him, mad.

He paused for a long moment, looking at me. I broke eye contact and turned around to leave.


	12. Realised II

"Okay, okay!" he grabbed my forearm to stop me as I went up the stairs "You're right! I'm sorry. It wasn't obvious. I should have told you." he raised his head a little for his eyes to meet mine, see the sadness and annoyance in there, but then looked down again. "I'm an asshole..." he murmured quietly.

I kept staring at his tiny figure standing there. He looked like a child who had just been scolded by his parents. His short, black hair covering his eyes as his head was leaning forward facing the floor. I should be mad at him because he just skipped telling me something so important about him but how can you be mad at someone like him? I approached him and affectionately rubbed his arm. When he looked up at me I gave him a smile, reassuring him it was okay. He smiled back, cheerful again. _Bipolar_.

"Sorry..."

"'I'm sowwy' " I mocked his adorable British accent, quickly pacing away from him. He ran to me and grabbed my waist from behind, immobilizing me, while I was frantically trying to escape from his grip. He was strong for his size. He started tickling me and a squeaky scream escaped my throat against my will. I stretched a bit reaching his tummy and tickled him until his grip loosened and I could ran away. I maneuvered between the instruments, struggling not to break or knock anything down and ran to the couch. Matt startled me as he wrapped his arms around my waist again pulling us both onto the couch. He pinned me down keeping on tickling me, my playful screaming and his loud, high-pitched laughter echoed in the room.

"Don't you dare mock my accent again." the whisper near my ear caused me to shiver slightly, his serious, firm tone of voice making me freeze on the spot, for the first time since I met him feeling almost afraid of him. But I couldn't be sure he wasn't mocking it. I pulled back looking into his blue eyes. But they were still playful, happy. My poker face turned into a wide smile once I regained my confidence. I raised one eyebrow.

"Why? Little Bellamy's gonna tell his mum?" I asked cheekily.

He stood up, his hands removing from my stomach as he looked at me with a suddenly sad face. My eyes widened in fear. My confidence draining away from me once again. I jumped off the couch and ran to him. I tried to cap his face and make him look at me, not able to see his eyes due to the shadows his large brow bones formed, but his hands quickly removed mine as he turned his face away. His body was shaking frantically as he desperately tried to hide his face.

_Ow fuck. Is he crying? _

"Matt, I-I'm sorry, I didn't-" I hurried to say but a high-pitched giggle ceased my apologies. Matt was bending forward clutching his stomach as his laughter was becoming louder and louder every second.

My face fell and, hurt, I turned around

"Fuck you." I said quietly not sure it could be heard over the laughter but I couldn't care less at the moment. I sat back on the couch and crossed my arms over my chest watching him huddling in front of me.

"You should see your face." he blurted when he eventually caught his breath. I shifted in my seat in embarrassment for falling for something so stupid. Like Matt would ever cry for something like this. "Hey..!" he said, his tone changed when I didn't reply, my eyes staring somewhere in front of me, and he slightly kicked the tip of my shoe.

I looked up at his slim figure standing before me now looking so much taller than my own. I dared to look at his face, a thick shadow covering most of his features but the clear-cut shape of his face so beautiful, his dark hair a mess sticking out from everywhere, made me blush uncontrollably. I looked back down in a desperate attempt to hide my flushing face from his intense gaze, feeling my heart beat fast and loud in my ears. He plopped down next to me "I was just teasing..." he apologized leaning closer to my face "I didn't mean to hurt you or anything...Hey. Are you okay?". I turned to face him and frowned upon seeing his expression. I shook my head.

"No, no. I mean...yes. I'm fine. It wasn't funny you know!" I said more lively and his face seemed to light up just a little only to fell a second later.

"You sure?" my eyes shot back at him, surprised by the genuine concern in his voice and I blushed again. _Why are you acting so stupidly!?_ a voice screamed in my head. I nodded unable to say anything or even move, sinking into the blue sea of his eyes. His brows furrowed and he kept staring at me blushing and shaking for mere seconds that, however, seemed like ages.

He finally stood up, grabbed my arm and pulled me along with him as he quickly paced toward the instruments, forcing me to snap out of my shocked state.

"C'mon. I'll make it up to you. What do you wanna do?" he asked over his shoulder.

"I..I don't know. Weren't we supposed to study?" I raised my eyebrows.

"Pfff! I know..." he said "But I'm so booored." he added innocently as he slowly turned around and stretched his arms above his head, his shirt pulled up revealing some of his belly. I smiled, fully understanding what studying would do right now. "What do you wanna do?" he repeated.

"Um..." I looked around in the room struggling to come up with something. I felt his eyes burning on my face when he opened his mouth to suggest something but closed it immediately. His previous quarrel with Dominic randomly popped in my mind and I giggled. "Dance for me." I said firmly, smiling evilly. His eyebrows shot up, obviously surprised by the sudden change in my voice. I felt smug for managing to surprise him in a way.

"Dance for you?" a playful, sly smile curling his lips up.

"Like a chicken on shrooms" I used the same phrase Dom had used some time ago and irritated Matt so much, wiggling my eyebrows, that sly tone not leaving my voice. He sighed, a light pink appearing on his cheeks.

"Note to self: Kill Dom before he humiliates you in a more embarrassing way." he said in a serious manner, pretending to write his note down with an invisible pen. I giggled and he smiled widely. He came closer and let his arm loosely hang on my shoulders. He shook his head "You're making fun of me for the second time today but I'm gonna condone it this time because you have an adorable laugh." he said and I felt a smile appearing on my face while red was creeping up "What do you wanna do? Apart from dancing, that is."

"Oww why? I wanted to see you dancing!" I whined.

"Well, not tonight." he giggled. I pouted but looked around the room again, searching for a new idea. That was when I spotted his battered acoustic guitar across the room. I looked up at him and then back at his guitar.

"Play something for me."

He seemed confused for a second and his eyebrow raised. Then his puzzled expression turned into an understanding one and then in something I couldn't interpret. He pursed his lips and shook his head.

"What?" I asked "I've never heard you playing. And since I've been indulgent about you _forgetting_ to tell me about your band you owe me." I reasoned.

"I've already apologized about that!" he whined.

"Ah, ah! You owe me."

"I just...I don't quite like playing in front of others...Don't feel comfortable." he said innocently.

"You don't feel comfortable playing in front of me?" I pouted.

"Nah, I just...maybe?" I quirked my eyebrows in disbelief, prying his sour expression.

"Maybe?" I questioned. He just nodded. "C'mon. Please?" I begged him, banging my foot on the floor. He seemed to consider it for a short moment before he nodded.

"Only one song, though." he walked to grab his acoustic guitar.

I clapped my hands happily, in victory and curled on the couch, shifting around to get as comfortable as I could. He sat down next to me and started testing the strings, making it seem so easy that I felt completely useless compared to him. A light smile on his face assured me that he was satisfied with the sound each of them produced. Suddenly, his eyes locked on the carpet in front of him, his gaze blank but at the same time focused. I froze waiting for a sign how I should react. The answer came when he turned his head to face me. His lips were a straight line, a serious expression. He slowly raised his hand and pointed at me with one finger.

"I'm not gonna sing." he said quietly. I stifled a giggle placing my hand on my mouth and nodded, signaling him to proceed, but pouting internally.

He arranged his long trained fingers on the neck of his guitar. His fingers started moving, only lightly touching the strings. The beautiful melody reached my ears, six notes producing such a great atmosphere for the beginning of the song. Matt's face had the calmest expression I've ever seen in a person before as the notes kept alternating for some more seconds until the intro had finished. His fingers picked up the pace hitting several notes at the same time, a powerful, rhythmical sound produced. One versus and one chorus later, the melody became slow, quiet again and it was only after mere seconds it began regaining its powerful rhythm until it came to its climax, sending strong shivers down my whole body, the sound of it almost orgasmic. At that same moment Matthew grimaced, his eyebrows furrowing, the shadow returning. His small lips curled into an almost pained smile and a low whining sound escaped them as if he was singing. A few more quiet notes sounded in the room and the guitar ceased.

His eyes met mine, his face close to my own, and shone once they noticed my stunned expression.

"So?" he asked softly "What do you think?".

I smiled widely at him. I opened my mouth to talk but couldn't find the right words to express the feelings what I've just heard created, the effect of his professional playing still keeping my mind under a little hypnosis.

"Oh" I breathed "That was...amazing." I finally said. "How do you call it?" He chuckled.

"Um..Er..I haven't come up with a pwoper tittle yet." he made eye contact "It needs some development, as well, if we want to play it in a gig or something though. Chris says we need to do something more complicated with the drums but I think the real problem is with the vocals but it can be fixed." he reasoned, saying more than it was really needed, and leaned his guitar against the timeworn couch. I nodded.

"I think it's perfect."

"But you haven't heard the vocals yet." his wry smile lighting up the whole room. I shook my head.

"So I'll eventually get to hear you singing, huh?" I smiled, the thought of hearing his voice in a live concert, or maybe here again, so tempting.

"Oh-ho-ho-oh, yeah. I guess." he laughed and I followed.

Suddenly, a loud noise was heard and then quick clatters before Dom crashed on the wall opposite the stairs and fell flat onto the tile floor. I was worried until, half a second after the crash, Dom stood up hysterically laughing, Chris following suit as he emerged from the staircase. From the corner of my eye I saw that Matt had the same stunned expression plastered on his face as I did. Dom and Chris turned around and their laughter ceased when they saw us on the couch. Their faces fell only to change into a implying, cheeky smile upon looking at each other and back at us.

"Do we _interrupt_?" asked Dominic, his eyebrow quirking. Chris tried to avoid eye contact, unsuccessfully trying to stifle a smirk.

Both me and Matt looked at each other at the same time only to notice how suspiciously close to each other we were. We immediately broke apart and nervously hurried to say 'no' several times answering Dom's question.

Matt stood up and walked up to them, wrapping his arms around their shoulders and malevolently digging his fingers on the back of their necks, both Chris' and Dom's smiles turning into pained ones. He looked so short next to those two, both several inches taller than him, yet so evil with that smile plastered on his face.

"I played the new song to Tori." he shrugged "She likes it." his face turned to me and give me a happy smile. I smiled back, not caring how red my face would be by then. "So? Do you want something or...?" he said, letting them go from his strong grip, and gestured towards the stairs once he finished his unfinished sentence.

"Ah, yes. We're ordering pizza. Do you want something?" Dom asked me and Matt but his eyes were looking at me, too afraid, I thought, to look back at his friend's burning glare. Before I could response Matt asked again.

"Are you hungry?" I rubbed my tummy, wondering if I was but a low growl gave me the answer.

"Um...I..." I glimpsed at the large clock on the wall "I should go." I said quickly, Matthew's face fell.

"Why? It's not even 8 yet!" he looked at the clock, reconsidering what he said "Well, it is but come on!" he whined "You stay and I will drive you home later, I promise." Chris and Dom giggled a bit but my eyes didn't leave from the pleading ones of the boy in front of me that clouded my mind. I looked down in an attempt to clean my head from the annoying fog so I could speak again.

"Er...well, it's not necessary."

"So you're staying for dinner?" I couldn't resist chuckling at his childish reaction, his eyes widening in excitement. I shrugged and smiled widely not actually thinking. "Great!" he exclaimed and grabbed my hand to pull me off the couch.

"Hey, do you want me to prepare anything?" he asked while we were entering the spacious kitchen.

"What? No. Say no. It's a trap!" screamed Dominic, mocking a horrified expression.

"Shut up, Dom!" Matt spat, his voice accompanied by Chris' light laughter. "What do you wanna eat?" he asked me in a calmer tone, leaning his small body on the counter. I shrugged.

"I don't know...Anything's fine with me."

"Even meat?" he asked cheekily, prolonging the last vowel, aware of my repulsion for meat. My features cringed in disgust.

"Nooo!" I winced.

He laughed and started searching in the cupboards.

"Hm...What about some pasta? Hmm...Pesto?" he said prying a small jar in his hands. My eyebrows shot up for the tenth time this afternoon.

"You know how to make pesto?" I asked. Chris shook his head, a smirk on his face.

"Matt knows every pasta recipe on his recipe book by heart."

"Italy lover?"

"Indeed. And surprisingly he's a pretty good cook when it comes to Italian food, considering he is unable to even boil an egg." he laughed. Matt let out a malevolent high-pitched giggle.

"At least_ I_ cook, Chrissy."

"I cook, too! Remember you love my burgers?" said Chris proudly, crossing his big arms on his chest.

"Nothing compares to my spaghetti; get over it! And, no, your burgers tasted like shit the last time." Matthew shot back.

"Little Jerry doesn't complained and he's eating them almost every day!"

"Who's Jerry?" I butted in, guessing he should be a relative or a friend.

"He's my little bud." he said sweetly "He's Watkins' younger son, actually."

"How old is he?" I tilted my head to the side, surprised by Chris' fatherly manner.

"He's five." he replied with a huge grin on his face. I nodded and smiled widely, unable to keep back the effect of his beautiful warm smile.

"Have you ever asked Jerry what's his favourite food?" Matt looked back at us over his shoulder, with a sassy smirk. Chris' eyebrow shot up. "I'll cook my best dish tomorrow for him. Bring yours." he challenged the bigger guy, still focused on his pesto sauce; his manner showing his thirst for competition once again.

"Are you challenging me?" asked Chris in disbelief.

"You bet!"

"Fight! Fight! Fight!" said Dom quietly behind us, shaking his fists up and down rhythmically. All three of us, turned to look at him. His face immediately became a poker face and his arms fell to his sides.

"I'll be in the living room..if...Never mind." he quickly said and exited the kitchen. We all laughed quietly and went back to what we were doing.

There was a moment of awkward silence, the only sound in the room coming from the spoon in Matt's hand scratching the bottom of the bowl as he blended the ingredients for his homemade sauce.

Chris walked over to the counter and stretched his arm to take a large jar that read 'cookies' with black bold letters from the top shelf. He looked inside and squinted at Matt, then looked for in a split second.

"Where are the cookies? I'm sure Tina made some today." Matt slowly turned around to face him, eyes still glued to his utensils.

"I think..." he started saying slowly and continued in his usual rapid speaking "We left some in the basement. The rest is were Dom left them." he turned back again, Chris already at the doorway.

"Where did he left 'em?". Matt turned his head in slow motion and arched his eyebrows, a sly smile replacing his previously serious expression.

"He ate lots of them today morning...". I quietly giggled in my hand, Chris' face turned into a ridiculously disgust expression and Matt cackled loudly as Chris left the room.

Our laughter created a nice light atmosphere in the room for some moments but then, when we grew silent once again, I realized I was left alone with Matt. My stomach flip-flopped, internally freaking out a bit. I stood there watching him as he dipped some spaghetti in the boiling water. He moved his fork a little around in the pot.

"Shit!" he muttered, his fork falling in the hot water. He leaned over it and looked inside. He blindly searched for his abandoned utensils and grabbed a knife and a spoon. He used them to lift the fork out of but it fell back inside. "Fuck you." he murmured to the rebelling fork. I giggled unable to stop myself anymore and walked up to him.

"Let me do it." I said and touched his shoulder to make him move out of the way. He held out the fork and the spoon for me but I only took the spoon.

"Don't you need this?" he held the knife in front of my face.

"Pff! Please!I've dropped way too much cutlery in pots with boiling water. I'm an expert." my faux reassuring tone caused a small smirk to appear on his face. I giggled. I sank the spoon in and balanced the metallic fork on the tip of the hollow part of it. I slowly dragged it along the inner of the pot until it successfully reached the rim. I carefully took it out with a kitchen towel and victoriously held it in front of Matt. "Here you go!" I smiled proudly. His eyes widened in disbelief but smiled at me as he took the fork and threw in the sink.

"Thank you." I smiled. "So you're cooking?"

"Oh, yes...kind of." I murmured the last words, quite embarrassed that I couldn't cook as much as he probably could.

"Favourite dish?" he turned to look at me as he threw a spaghetti in his mouth.

"Um..pasta."

"Mhmm. Mine as well." he smiled "Maybe you could share some of your recipes with me?" he winked. I felt red crawling up my face.

"I-I -apparently I don't have any recipes you'd need. I mean your pesto can't be compared to my red sauce; that's all I can make." I shrugged and looked down. He lightly laughed.

"You haven't tried my sauce yet." He opened a drawer and took out a spoon. He dipped it in the green liquid. It made a low scratching sound as he slowly dragged it on the rim of the smaller pot pulling it out, letting the extra sauce to drip off the spoon. He neared it to his mouth and blew cool air at it, his hand mere inches below. He turned the spoon to my direction and brought it closer to my face. I leaned in and eagerly took a bit of the green sauce in my mouth. It seemed so good and-

"God, this is so good!" I exclaimed. It actually was one of the best spaghetti sauce I've ever tried. Who knew a sixteen-year-old could cook like this? A literally huge smile lit his face.

"You like it?"

"Yes! This is delicious!" I commented really looking forward to eating more. A gentle giggle escaped his lips.

"Thanks." he murmured, bashfully smiling. I smiled as well and nodded.

"Do you need any help?"

"Nah, I'm fine." He stretched his small body up to the cupboard to get some plates. He filled them with pasta and took two of them, ready to leave the room. I pouted at him. He sweetly smiled."Here you go!" he offered me two of the plates with a sigh. "I'm bringing some cola." he held the door open for me. I smiled goofily as he looked down at me.

I found Dom and Chris playing a car racing game, Dom's red car on the right part of the TV screen and Chris' yellow on the left, their names appearing on either upper corner under 'Player 1' and 'Player 2'. Both of them screamed when Chris' car hit a fence, Dom poking his side with his elbow and Chris squirming away laughing aloud. I walked over to them with the two plates in my hands. Dom turned his head when he heard me coming in the room.

"Food!" he exclaimed, gently taking one plate off my hand. "Thanks, Tori!" I walked around the couch and handed Chris his.

"Thanks." he looked up and murmured with a bashful smile.

"You're welcome." I smiled back at him. I walked over to the opposite couch and curled up there watching the two boys wolfing down some mouthfuls of green sauce-covered spaghetti.

"Mmm!" enthusiastically groaned Chris as he ate some more, both me and Dominic giggling to the funny sound.

"Aren't you gonna eat?" Dom asked with his mouth full. I smiled.

"Yes, just waiting for Matt." I gestured towards the kitchen with a jerk of my head.

"Oh, okay."

A couple of minutes later Matt emerged from the kitchen. Actually, his foot as he kicked the door open, his hands busy holding a huge disk with cola, lemonade and two plates with pasta. And more cola, a plastic bottle dug into each front pocket of his pants. I laughed and stood up to help him but sat back down when I saw his strict glare.

He gently placed the disk on the wooden coffee table in front of Chris and Dom. He handed me one plate as he plopped down next to me.

"Thanks." I said and grabbed my fork to start eating.

"What d'you wanna drink?" he asked me, already pouring some lemonade in a glass and placing it on the edge table in front of me. I snorted and smiled as he looked at me, blindly pouring Chris and Dom lemonade and cola for him. He turned his head and took some big sips of his dark brown beverage. I coiled some spaghetti around my fork, Matt mimicking me. I brought the fork near my mouth, ready to start devouring the mouthwatering spaghetti when I noticed Matt staring at me. I lowered my hand to the plate, my eyes travelling around the room and then back at him.

"What?"

"Nothing." he chuckled quietly, turning his attention to gathering spaghetti around his fork with slow moves. Through the corner of my eye I saw him looking at me again as I put the pasta in my mouth and chewed slowly. The taste now was twice as good as it was when I tried the sauce back in the kitchen, way too good to describe. My eyes widened, not expecting to eat something so delicious made by a teenage British boy in an average American house instead of a rewarded chef in a pricey, five-star Italian restaurant. His lips turned upwards in a pleased smile as he saw my expression.

"This is so good!" I exclaimed.

"Told you." smiled Chris from the floor.

"You like it?" Matt asked excitedly for the obvious, raising his eyebrows.

I shook my head not able to find the right words for a moment.

"This is simply the best spaghetti I've ever eaten by a non professional." He grinned from ear to ear and nodded. Dom and Chris laughed and poke each other. I blushed.

"Thank you!"

We sat there eating in silence for some time, everyone enjoying the food.

I found myself looking at Matthew while he was eating. I smiled widely when a spaghetti flopped on his nose as he sucked on it, covering his nose in green sauce. I laughed and he followed suit. He wiped the sauce with his index finger and lightly touched my nose leaving some of it there. I backed on the couch and giggled, wiping the trace of green with my palm. He let out a high-pitched laugh.

"Sorry." he tried to say through giggling. I shook my head.

"So." I sipped my lemonade "Tell me about your band." I said, glaring at Matt. He sratched the back of his head and giggled again.

"What do you wanna know?" he asked quietly. I huffed.

"I dunno...Err...How did you start?"

"Um...y'know." started Dom "I was in that band and then Matt joined it too but that band was really fucked up at that time so we started our own band. And, then, we heard Chris was a good drummer-"

"Wait...You're playing the bass, right?" I asked Chris.

"Yes" he laughed, sipping some of his cola "that's what they wanted me for."

"We forced him to take bass lessons." simply said Matt. I quirked an eyebrow.

"Yeah, there would be no band without Chris so we had to." Dom shrugged one shoulder. I nodded, smiling.

"And then?"

"Then...We took part in that Battle of the Bands and we won." smiled Matt and shrugged, looking somewhere on the table in front of him, before he stretched to take his glass. He sipped.

"And that was when they would even pay me to stay in the band." chuckled Chris.

"Yeah," laughed Matt "We kinda took the whole thing more seriously after that and we changed our name..."

"To what?" They all laughed. "What?"

"W-We were called Rocket Baby Dolls" said Matt through giggles.

"Rocket Baby Dolls!?" I laughed "The porn?" Matt's mouth fell open and he let out his high pitched laughter.

"You're watching porn!?" I blushed and giggled again.

"No...I know a guy..." I batted my lashes.

"A guy...?"

"My cousin." I chuckled. "So? How are you called now?"

"Muse."

"Muse." I repeated and nodded "I like it." Matt smiled and left his empty plate on the table, pushing some bottles and glasses away. I smiled back and gathered the remaining spaghetti and delicious sauce with my fork. Wow. This was incredible...

"Hey, Matt, mate..." Chris shook his head "Do you have some more?" he rubbed his eyes as he blurted this out and raised his empty now plate.

"Fuck, yes!" Matt shook his fist in the air "I knew it! You like my food..." he winked at him. Chris let out a dramatic sigh.

"Do you have some more?"

"Yes. Go get it, big boy!" he cheered and slapped Chris' arse as he pasted by the couch. My eyes widened before both me and Dom cracked out laughing. Chris disappeared in the kitchen.

Matt lay back on the couch. He rubbed his stomach, full from all this pasta and cola he'd consumed. Dom took a sip from his homemade lemonade and copied Matt's movement. Matt threw the red lid of the cola bottle at Dominic and it successfully hit his nose before it fell on his lap. He, also, took in his hand and tossed it at Matt, both repeating this back-and-forth game until Matt fail to hit Dom with it.

"Loser..." said Dom uninterested.

"Ah, shush!" spat out Matt, turning his head away from him. Dom laughed at his exaggerated reaction and soon Matt followed. I just sat there watching them, lulled by all this food and the friendly, comfortable atmosphere. It was kind of nice to watch them play like little boys. It made me wonder how they used to spend their time together some years prior to that day, back then when they had first met.

I stretched my arms and lay back on the couch, too relaxed to move. Something clicked in my head.

_What time it is?_

"What time is it?" I asked Dom, who was the only one wearing a watch. He glimpsed at his digital watch.

"21:43" simply replied Dom and rubbed his eyes.

"Oh, shit!" I winced and jumped off the couch searching in my bag for my phone. "Shit." I repeated, my phone nowhere to be found. I must have left it home and my parents would have called a million times by now. "I...I should go..." I said nervously and walked to the door remembering my house was actually too far from Brown's. I turned on my heel. "Can I make a call?".

Matt stood up and walked up to the small table in the hall towards the bedrooms. He came back in the living room with a black portable phone in his hand.

"Here you go." he stretched his arm and as I neared to take it he took it back. I looked up at his face. What now? He slightly opened his mouth to talk, his head tilting to the side and his eyes narrowing. A little evil smile appeared on his features. "Who?"

"Who what?"

"Call who?". I was confused now.

"I..I'll call my dad to pick me up...?". I frowned upon hearing his giggling. I'm sure I blushed. Just a bit.

"Come on." he said, throwing the phone on the couch. "I'm driving you home.".

"I-I...No...I mean...That...That's not necessary." I mumbled. For some weird reason, the flip- flop feeling returned in my stomach. Why? He chuckled.

"It is actually. I was the one talking you into staying for dinner so..." his voice faded out while searching around in the house in every bowl and cupboard in the living room and the hall. He came back with a key in his hand. "Let's go." he stood in front of me. I balked in front of the door.

"You sure?"

"Yeah! Come on!" he gently pushed me off the way to hold the door open for me and wait for me to go out first.

"Bye, guys!" I waved at the two boys on the couch before Matt closed the door.

" 'Night, Tori!" cheered Dom while Chris said a quiet "Bye." both busy watching a reality show.

I followed behind Matthew as he made his way to the garage. He grabbed the handle and pulled the garage door upwards. It opened with a loud creak, proof that it needed quite some strength to open it. Where did such a tiny guy get this strength from? He took my hand and led me into the dark of the garage. My eyes quickly adjusted to the dark and I saw a car. I guessed the colour was a light blue and by the looks of it, it was a bit of a wreck but, to be honest, it was the kind of car that I like. Those old, vintage cars always have something mysterious, don't they? He came to the right side of the car and held the door open for me and then gently closed it when I entered. I watched him walk around the car to get to his side and I found myself dreamily sigh. When I realized it I immediately looked away, blushing furiously. What-

"How you like this beauty?" he said, stroking the black inside of the car. I giggled.

"Much. It's nice." I answered copying his move.

"Yeah...It's pretty, isn't it?"

"Mhmm." I hummed, relaxing in my seat. It felt nice to be here with him. Relaxing. Usually I'm just too awkward with people around me – sometimes even with Mia – but this wasn't happening with Matthew, especially after tonight. It was a good chance to loosen up even more and know Dom and Chris better. It was about time, I guess. We've been so close with Matt lately and it just wasn't right not to feel comfortable around him.

The old engine of the beauty roared as Matt drove away from the house.

"Hey, have you done this before?"

"Done what before?" he asked, looking away from the road for a split second.

"Driving on the right. You drive on the left in Europe, right?"

"Oohh," he laughed "Why? Do you think that I'll drive us into a wall or something?" he giggled now looking back on the road again. I laughed along with him.

"No, should I?" I raised one eyebrow only to hear his soft laughter again.

"No. No, you're safe for now." he giggled again "I've done it a couple of times since I came here. Though Tina doesn't allow me to take the car." I think I saw him wink at me in the dark. I lightly snorted.

Then, suddenly, I remembered and gasped.

"Oh, do you know where I can find liquorice candies around here? I'd bought some in that store down the street but the man says they don't have it anymore...What kind of shop doesn't have liquorice candies!?" I started laughing at his frustrated manner.

"I don't know. Why don't you check Wal-mart? Though I'm not sure they have it..." I finally said. "Probably, they do; I dunno. I don't like this stuff..." His mouth fell agape in shock.

"How is this even possible!?" he shrieked "You really don't?" I shook my head negatively. He giggled. "Well, Tina said they didn't the last time she was there." he huffed "I used to find it everywhere in Devon...".

"Well, Wal-Mart here isn't the biggest so, yeah, they don't have some stuff from time to time...Why did you even chose to come to a place they don't have liquorice?"

"Ah, if only I knew..." I smiled.

"Seriously, why did you pick Bentonville?"

"I don't know...I guess Dom liked the idea of being in a kinda small town. I didn't, you know. I was growing sick of Teignmouth, really. People there are so...tight laced and weird and grumpy. But, it's not that bad here. In fact – no – it's fun, I like it. Plus, if I hadn't listened to Dom and picked Bentonville I wouldn't have met some great people...like..." he thought for a second "like you, " he made a gesture with his hand towards me "It would be a pity, 'cause you're awesome, you know?" he gave me a soft smile that made me gasp. I felt my cheeks burning and I was grateful to the dark for hiding my blushing right now. I didn't know what to say. It felt like I couldn't think at that moment so the only thing I could do was give him a weak smile and turn around to look out of the window.

We were in my neighborhood now. The blur of the houses as we were passing by started becoming clearer as the car slowed down and eventually stopped outside my house. I pouted. Even though I was feeling awkward again after Matt's comment I didn't want to go home yet.

I turned my head to his direction and he was looking at me. As our eyes met he looked down and then out of the window screen. But I kept looking at him, looking at his face. I sighed and unwillingly started blushing again. I started panicking.It wasn't like I've never done this before – looking at him. I always found his beautiful, sharp features to be soothing or amusing. Just a couple of seconds of close observing of his face could make my day. But this time it was different. I couldn't stop staring at him.

He turned to look at me again, tilting his head to distract my frozen insistent gaze. I blinked several times to clear my head and looked down at my bag. I took the strap and put it on my shoulder.

"What?" he asked. A soft giggle lingering in his voice. I shook my head.

"I-I..." I smiled. Then I remembered. "Matt!"

"What!?" he screamed and jumped.

"I didn't help you with your Chemistry..." I whined. He snorted and leaned his head back into the seat.

"It's okay. I didn't really need it, anyway."

"Oh..?"

"Yeah, you know...Just wanted to spend some time with you." he smiled and I blushed. Again. The second time in the last five minutes. That wasn't good. I would have a heart attack or what?

I smiled and looked up at him again.

"Thank you." I looked up at his face smiling even more widely. He half-smiled half-giggled again, smile wide to show his rebel tooth in the dark of the car. His eyes shone and he nodded. My hand faltered on the handle of the door. I didn't want to leave now. I didn't want to choose leaving when I had the other option of staying here and looking at his smiling face.

He suddenly leaned closer and stopped mere inches from my face. He leaned a bit closer. I'd swear my heartbeat was, at least, audible in the silent car. He did a back and forth movement for some moments while I was standing completely still, too shocked to react. He leaned in again and just before his nose touched mine he tilted his head and planted a kiss on my cheek. I gasped. He pulled back and smiled.

I pulled the handle and the door opened with a sound. I looked back at him before getting out of the car.

"Good night." I said looking back at him before closing the door.

"Good night" he said softly. I walked around the front of the car with fast reluctant steps. I walked up the three steps to my house and took a second to look back at him before opening with my keys. He was still there. I opened the door just a crack and heard the old engine roar. My heart pounded and I felt sad for a reason I couldn't fully understand. And it surely wasn't all the see-saw we played in the car.

Suddenly, something clicked in my head and a shiver ran down my spine. The 'what the hell is wrong with me?' questione had now found an answer.

"Oh." I murmured.

I went inside.


End file.
